Paul Caprio, executive director of the
Illinois-based Family-PAC, on Wednesday cited the state's murder rate
in opposing a proposed gay marriage bill.
The measure is currently being debated
during the General Assembly's lame-duck session, which ends January
8.
Family-PAC is among the at least nine
conservative 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 Sandy Rios, Caprio warned that the marriage bill would harm
children.
“We think it's important that we
block this in the state of Illinois,” Caprio said. “We know that
there have been several referendums recently in other more
progressive states, frankly more liberal states, where this has
passed by narrow margins, but we feel that it's very important to
stand up.”
“You know, it's interesting, when you
stop to think about it what should the interest of the state be
relative to the issue of marriage? The state, more than anyone,
should be looking at marriage in terms of protection of children if
for no other reason that if children are not protected, and children
need foster care or they need DCF [Department for Children and
Families] assistance, it costs the state so much more money. Just
looking at it from the point of view from the state, not the point of
view that we look at things from, including the moral perspective of
this issue, but it's really interesting when you stop to think about
it. Chicago, it was announced yesterday, is murder capital of the
United States: 506 murders. We have the second highest unwed – or
children out of wedlock birth rate, of any major city in the United
States, right behind Detroit. All of these things are for reasons
and one of the major reasons is the breakdown and the lack of a
stable family for children,” he said.