David E. Smith, the executive director
of the Christian conservative Illinois Family Institute, has repeated
the group's assertion that there “are no gay marriages.”
The IFI is among the at least nine
organizations forming the Coalition to Protect Children and Marriage,
the nascent coalition formed to lobby lawmakers against making
Illinois the 10th state to legalize marriage equality.
Speaking with NBC
Chicago, Smith denied the existence of married gay couples.
“No one's going around trying to
redefine triangles as round,” he said. “There are no round
triangles. There are no gay marriages. There's going to have to be
a distinction between marriages that are gay marriages, or
genderless, you might say, and those that are actually man and woman
who produce children: procreative.”
Laurie Higgins, the group's cultural
analyst, made a similar claim in a recent article titled Marriage
Is Not A Civil Right.
“Although marriage licenses are being
issued by some state governments to homosexual couples, there are in
reality no homosexual marriages – never were, are not now, never
will be,” she wrote.
Illinois lawmakers are expected to
debate issue next month.
(Related: Illinois
State Senator Heather Steans says lawmakers are “close” on gay
marriage.)