It has been 10 years since the United States Supreme Court declared in Obergefell v. Hodges that same-sex couples have the legal right to marry. More Americans are waking up to the profound effects that that ruling (and LGBT activism) have had on the country. Parents are tired of LGBT messaging being pushed on their kids, being told that they should allow their child to have “gender-transition” surgeries if they are gender-confused, and that they must allow boys to be in their daughters’ locker rooms and play on their teams. In addition, people are largely rejecting Pride celebrations and corporate wokeism.
‘What Does It Matter? Same-Sex Marriage Won’t Affect Me’
Having worked on the Family Research Council correspondence team since 1998, I have often reflected upon the hundreds of letters and emails we received during those 17 years before Obergefell. Even many Christians asked, “What’s the big deal? Why can’t two men marry or two women marry? It’s not going to affect us. Just let them be happy. It’s their private lives, and it’s their right.” As one person wrote, “Do you really care that much? Why is it so bad, and why are you opposed to it, nothing bad can come from it.”
Clearly, the LGBT lobby had been very successful at confusing Americans, telling them through television show, movies, and commercials that homosexuality was good, that those who disagreed were hateful, intolerant, and bigoted, and that ultimately “gay marriage” should be legalized.
Marriage Is Public and Affects Society. It’s Not Just a Private Institution.
The correspondence team would respond to these questions, explaining that same-sex marriage is not merely about “wanting someone to acknowledge the love you have for another person” or “the right to love.” Marriage is not just a private relationship. It is much more than that. There is a public purpose of marriage. We would share what FRC’s then-vice president for Policy, Peter Sprigg, had written:
“The debate over whether homosexual couples should be allowed to legally ‘marry’ is not about rights, equality, or discrimination, despite the often heated rhetoric to that effect. Still less is it about the allocation of an entitlement package of legal rights and financial benefits. Instead, this is a question of definition: How do we define the social institution we call marriage?
“To answer that we must ask, ‘What is the public purpose of marriage?’ Please note that I said the public purpose of marriage. The private purposes for which people enter into marriage may be as diverse as the people themselves. Homosexual activists sometimes argue that they want to marry for the same reasons heterosexuals do: out of a desire for love and companionship. But are interpersonal love and companionship really the business of government? Would we even tolerate the government issuing licenses and regulating entry and exit into relationships whose only or even principal purpose is emotional attachment?
“I submit to you that the answer is ‘no.’ So what is the public interest in marriage? Why is marriage a public, civil institution, rather than a purely private one? The answer, I would argue, is that marriage is a public institution because it brings together men and women for the purpose of reproducing the human race and keeping a mother and father together to cooperate in raising to maturity the children they produce. The public interest in such behavior is great, because thousands of years of human experience and a vast body of contemporary social science research both demonstrate that married husbands and wives, and the children they conceive and raise, are happier, healthier, and more prosperous than people in any other living situation.
“Marriage is an institution which no court has the authority to redefine. Its existence transcends cultures and precedes the laws and Constitution of the United States. Its definition has been recognized throughout history. Any attempt to stray from its fundamental meaning will not only make marriage meaningless, but likely extinct. Marriage is the foundation of civilization and of the family. Weaken marriage, and families and societies become imperiled.”
Individual and Social Problems Are Sharply Reduced by the Presence of a Married Mom and Dad
Sprigg’s point that marriage is a public institution that impacts and benefits all of society remains an important argument and continues to be proven true, as FRC has continually discussed over the years — even after Lawrence v. Texas in 2003 which declared that laws criminalizing sodomy between consenting adults are unconstitutional due to the “right to privacy” and Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015 which declared same-sex marriage to be legal. Dr. Pat Fagan (then FRC’s founder and director of the Marriage and Religion Research Institute) wrote in 164 Reasons to Marry,
“The future strength of our nation depends on good marriages to yield strong revenues, good health, low crime, high education, and high human capital. As the following enumeration shows, smart parents and smart societies pay attention to the state and strength of marriage.”
As TWS’s Chuck Donovan recently wrote, the truth about marriage and family is getting affirmed by studies:
“[A]s a diverse group of think tanks released a new study of the effect of family structure on social behavior in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The study should offer a huge lift to commentators and political actors of all stripes, because what it definitively shows is that individual and social problems — crime, mental illness, education gaps, unwillingness to work — are sharply reduced by one key factor: the presence and parenting of a mother and father, especially a married mother and father, in the home. The remedies afforded by a thousand social programs and billions in tax dollars fall leagues short of what an intact family can do. And the effect transcends racial and economic boundaries. There is simply no excuse for any public leader not to be profoundly pro-family.”
‘Courage Breeds Courage’: Stand Up for Traditional Marriage and Families, the Building Blocks of Society
From the time of its founding, FRC has declared that marriage is deeply important and that families are the basic building blocks of society. As Donovan recently wrote, this common sense understanding is starting to be recognized again internationally:
“The Greek philosopher [Aristotle] wrote, some three hundred years before Christ, that marriage is ‘an older and more fundamental thing than the state.’ For Aristotle, the [Canadian] authors say, ‘The stability of any state depended on the success of households founded on the ‘natural procreative union of male and female.’ All the more remarkably, this understanding prevailed in Western European and North American nations until the past decade, and, though intimidated in its public expression today, it has some sway even now.”
FRC President Tony Perkins recently talked about the waking up of America to the lie of transgenderism with FRC’s Quena González on “Washington Watch.” González explained the effects that Arkansas’s Safe Act (which FRC pioneered and protects children from experimental drugs and surgeries) is having on the United States. He said,
“It really led to the point where we now have the president of the United States affirming that children are born perfect in their bodies just the way they are. There’s been a real switch in our understanding of this issue. It has provided a turning point when many thought that this … transgender train was barreling down the tracks and couldn’t be stopped. It has been stopped, and it’s been turned.”
In a separate discussion, Perkins talked about the waking of America to the harmful effects of Obergefell and our potential to rebuild the institutions of marriage and family with FRC’s Travis Weber and Suzanne Bowdey on “Washington Watch.” Weber said,
“The transgender issue emerging in recent years is popping its head above ground — people seeing the ugly reality of what that is doing to our families, to parental rights, to parental authority, to children, to the teaching of children — all of the issues we’ve seen the last two or three years. People are rightly reacting to that. But … they need to make … the connection between that and what the court did in Obergefell, and any approval of the idea that somehow marriage can be between two people of the same biological sex. That’s just not true. … But God is the author of truth and reality, and this is something we must call attention to and help people see when, unfortunately, our country has missed it in something like this.”
Perkins agreed, saying,
“We just finished Pride Month. I was talking about this earlier in the program [with Dr. Ben Carson]. Corporate America even — I’m not sure that their heart is in it — but they are dialing it back because they see where the American public is. This is so important that we speak up because, as we speak up and as we take a stand — as I like to say, courage breeds courage — and we’ll see more Americans standing against these lies, this deception which is destructive and dangerous.”
Bowdey explained:
“I think one thing that’s important to remember is this was six justices’ opinions. Until 2022 … this was not done legislatively. So we were substituting the country’s opinion for six justices who believe that you could redefine what marriage is. And I think that the public never really went along with that idea. In fact, in 2022 when this was debated in Congress, people were really frustrated by the fact that we would continue down this path after we saw almost immediately the effect of Obergefell. You know, Justice Kennedy, when he wrote that opinion, said he thought there were good people on both sides of the debate, and he cautioned people to take religious freedom seriously and protect it. And almost immediately, what did we see? We saw the religious freedom of bakers and florists, of county clerks [chipped away]. It opened up the door to attacks on education, conscience rights. So, yes, the American people have seen the effects, and they’re horrified by it. That’s why … Republicans in particular have really pulled back on this idea that it’s a good idea for the country. The support has dropped precipitously — about 14% on the GOP side. So I think we’re going to continue to see people re-evaluate this as a policy idea.”
Pray for Continued Spiritual Awakening and Articulate the Truth about Marriage and Families
A spiritual awakening is happening in America. Let’s pray that it continues to spread exponentially. In addition, America and other countries are waking up to the lies of transgenderism and the deeply harmful effects that the breakdown of the family has on society. So let’s also pray that more Americans wake up to the importance of marriage and family.
As we do, as FRC’s Director of the Center for Biblical Worldview David Closson told TWS,
“It will be important for Christians to articulate an apologetic for marriage and why the biblical understanding of marriage that, coincidentally, was understood for 6,000 years, is actually what contributes to true human flourishing.”
This article was originally published by The Washington Stand.
