Marriage Amendment Goes Down to Defeat

On a mostly party line vote (N.E. Liberal Republicans and McCain voted with the Democrats) the Marriage Amendment has failed in the Senate. Sixty votes were required to end debate and vote on the bill. They could only muster 49.

The whole thing strikes my as a cursory effort designed to score points with the base and get the Democrats on record rather than a serious effort to protect marriage. Compare how quickly this came and went to the President's ongoing and extravagent effort to push a "guest worker" program off on an unwilling America. THAT is the way he acts when he wants something done. By comparison it is clear that they did not make a serious effort.

The effects of this failure will be wide ranging, as has been outlined in this article. Once homosexual "marriage" becomes a civil right, dissent will become unacceptable. The full force of the federal government will be used to push those with traditional views further into the margins. Here are some examples that the neutral Beckett foundation discovered...

The Beckett Fund study listed several areas that will be used as a wedge to increasingly isolate opposition...

Licensing

After Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriage, Boston Catholic Charities exited the adoption business rather than cede to state demands that it place children with same-sex couples. If same-sex marriage is legalized, professional licenses might also be denied to psychological clinics, social workers, marriage and family counselors, and others who believe same-sex relationships are "objectively disordered."

Tax Exemption and Government Benefits

Religious groups could find themselves suffering along with the Boy Scouts, as access to public facilities is stripped away. Gay-rights litigators will likely challenge groups' federal tax-exempt status, charging that such an exemption "subsidizes discrimination."

Conflicts Between Civil Rights Law and Religious Freedom

Among the possibilities: Religious employers who refuse to hire or retain employees in same-sex marriages can expect to be sued on the basis of "marital status discrimination." Religious colleges that refuse admission to same-sex couples could face civil lawsuits and loss of accreditation. In Massachusetts, Catholic colleges already are examining whether they must provide married student housing to legally married gay couples.

Freedom of Speech

Principles used by courts in deciding workplace sexual harassment cases will likely migrate to suppress an expression of anti-same-sex-marriage views by religious groups and people. The attorney general of New Jersey recently backed officials at William Patterson University after a non-faculty employee objected to receiving a mass e-mail inviting people to see gay-themed movies. The school disciplined the employee for having engaged in harassment because of her use of a single word, "perversions," to describe the content of the films. "