Tell the Governor– Don’t Sign SB566 or SB597!

Pushed through the legislature as health care and hospital visitation rights these bills are a real affront to the sanctity of marriage for all people of faith.

While some think these Domestic Partnership bills are only dealing with homosexual “rights” they are in reality another blow at the foundation of marriage because they tell young couples they don’t have to get married to have the benefits of marriage.  Just live together, sign an affidavit and open a joint checking account or buy a car together and there is no need to get married.

I recently spoke with a Pastor who told me that when he counsels a couple about marriage and says they must live apart until the wedding day “it is a deal beaker!”  Another Pastor told me he gets very few couples wanting to marry that aren’t already living together.  These bills now encourage them to by-pass marriage altogether, because the State recognizes “Domestic Partnerships” instead, with little or no commitment.

ACT BEFORE MAY 13 TO TELL THE GOVERNOR NOT TO SIGN SB566 OR SB597.

The Governor has two more occasions to sign the pro-homosexual Domestic Partnership bills.  Those dates are May 13 and May 22.  If we are to make an impact it must be done QUICKLY and in QUANTITY. It would be best to MAIL the Governor a letter, with your name and address asking him to NOT SIGN SB566 and SB597.

One of our focuses will be on the slap in the face the bills give faith groups . . . by encouraging young heterosexual couples to avoid in-church marriages.  Why bother with church marriage training and sanction if we can have principal marriage benefits by merely signing an affidavit and jointly leasing an apartment and a car?

It seems to me that letters from pastors (and as many of their flock members as possible) decrying the usurpation of faith-group prerogatives should give the Governor some pause, maybe even turn this thing around.

ACT BEFORE MAY 13 TO TELL THE GOVERNOR NOT TO SIGN SB566 OR SB597.

Look below for a sample letter that you can send to the Governor...

Governor’s contact by email is: www.gov.state.md.us

Governor’s contact by fax is: 410.974.3275

Governor’s contact by phone is: 410.974.3901 or 1.800.811.8336

I HAVE CONTACTED SEVERAL HUNDRED PASTORS, asking them to write a letter as well.  Ask your Pastor if he or she got an email from us on this issue.  If your Pastor was NOT one of them, please send me his or her email so I can be sure to contact him or her in the future.

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The Honorable Martin O’Malley
State House, 100 State Circle
Annapolis, MD 21401

Dear Governor O’Malley:

I write to urge you to veto Senate Bills 566 and 597, which erode of the definition of marriage in state law by defining “domestic partnerships” and assigning marriage-equivalency status to those relationships in the health and tax statutes.

I write in opposition not so much to the privileges bestowed by these bills, but rather out of a grave concern that the legal definition of marriage will be seriously diluted in order to bestow those privileges.  Most of the privileges granted in the measures are already available in statutes that provide for readily available advance directives; others can be granted without creating the ill-conceived, marriage-equivalent “domestic-partner” relationship defined in the legislation.

In both pieces of legislation, the definition of domestic partnership is so broad and ambiguous that it will be extended to the most casual of relationships – relationships that can easily be entered into and just as easily dissolved; relationships that assume scarce few of the obligations associated with committed marriages.  Sound public policy should not equate such relationships with the legal institution of marriage.

It may well be that certain of the rights and privileges currently granted by law to persons who are married should also be offered to couples who are not, but this should be done in a way that does no damage to the institution of marriage and the high status historically accorded to that institution by our laws.  It should be done in a way that does not give insult to the religious traditions which exalt marriage and regard it as sacramental. 

I urge you to protect the legal status of marriage in Maryland by vetoing Senate Bills 566 and 597.

Sincerely,

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