Brian Brown, president of the National
Organization for Marriage (NOM), on Saturday reiterated his claim
that allowing gay couples to marry will lead to polygamist marriages.
C-Span's Washington
Journal hosted Brown and Sarah Warbelow, legal director at
Human Rights Campaign (HRC), to discuss the issue.
On the program, Brown accused marriage
equality supporters of denying rights to people in plural
relationships.
“This is changing what marriage
fundamentally is,” Brown said of marriage equality. “And if you
talk about the change in the way that was brought up earlier, 'Well,
this is about affirming people's rights. This is about affirming the
dignity of their relationship,' then you have to ask a simple
question: Why not three, four, or five people? Why is this only
about same-sex marriage? Why do supporters of same-sex marriage now
deny rights to those who want to practice polygamy?”
“Because once you change the
fundamental truth that marriage is by definition the union of a man
and a woman, all the other characteristics of marriage are up for
grabs. And so I ask, why not, why not three, four or five?”
Later, Brown said that the Supreme
Court would ultimately uphold state marriage bans.
“There is not a civil right to
redefine marriage,” Brown said. “There is no right to do that.
Again, the notion that the American people can't be trusted with
certain questions and that our elites, our philosopher kings, get to
decide these issues for us is fundamentally flawed. And I don't
think it's going to end up winning out at the United States Supreme
Court.”
For the record, Brown
also predicted that the Supreme Court would uphold the Defense of
Marriage Act (DOMA), which it struck down last year.