Speaking to a reporter before the start
of a Salt Lake City rally in opposition to gay marriage, an organizer
claimed that supporters were asking children to give up their
relationships with their parents.
The rally, held Friday, was to support
Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes in his fight to keep the state's ban
on such unions.
(Related: Utah
defends its gay marriage ban in case with far-reaching implications.)
Reyes told a crowd of about 100 at the
Capitol that his defense of Utah's ban is not motivated by hate.
Mary Summerhays, a spokeswoman for the
group Celebration
of Marriage, told CBS
affiliate KUTV that her group opposed marriage equality because
it denied children “the most formative relationships in their
lives.”
“Today's event is focusing on the
needs of children and how we can address their concerns and protect
their needs in a culture that is considering redefining marriage. I
think the foremost question that we're wondering is how can we …
that it rings a little bit hollow to tell children that you need to
give up a mother and a father in order for us stand on the right side
of history.”
“So we're trying to do what we can to
stand with children and defend their rights that will be affected by
a redefinition of marriage.”
“A child's foremost relationships
comes with their mother and their father and children deserve to have
both a mother and a father. We all have different relationships with
our mothers and fathers and it's important that we recognize and
preserve those relationships. Relationships are worthy of
protecting. As homosexuals feel very strongly that their
relationships are worthy of protecting, it shouldn't have to come at
the cost of children's relationships and especially not the most
formative relationships in their lives.”