John Eastman, the chairman of the National Organization for
Marriage (NOM), has warned of “devastating consequences for civil
society” if gay and lesbian couples are allowed to marry.
Eastman appeared on PBS News Hour to discuss the marriage
equality landscape following the fall of the Defense of Marriage Act
(DOMA).
“The people that are opposed to redefining the very core
institution of marriage are going to continue fighting,” Eastman
said. “Justice Kennedy's opinion in the Defense of Marriage Act
case rests heavily on the fact that states are the primary
determiners of marriage policy in our country. … The statutes and
the state constitutional provisions that define marriage as it has
been through most of human history, as a man and a woman, don't need
to be changed.”
Eastman credited African-American pastors with blocking a marriage
bill in Illinois: “The African-American pastors rose up and they
almost single-handedly stopped the redefinition of marriage bill from
going through the Illinois legislature.”
“And what we're trying to do here is redefine the institution of
marriage to say that fathers are optional. That's predictably going
to have devastating consequences on civil society. And I think
that's why this thing was pulled from the Illinois Legislature before
it went forward. People are standing back now and starting to think
about the collateral consequences that may flow from this radical
redefinition of marriage.” (The video is embedded on this page.
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