Arizona and Florida Also Protect True Marriage

Only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state.

PHOENIX, AZ (LifeSiteNews) - Out of the three states with measures to ban same-sex "marriage" on yesterday's ballots (Florida, Arizona and California), all three have voted to protect the true definition of marriage.

Florida's Amendment 2 passed with over 60% of the vote. Called the "Florida Marriage Protection Amendment" it states that, "Inasmuch as marriage is the legal union of only one man and one woman as husband and wife, no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized."

While well over half of Floridians voted to protect true marriage, about half also voted for Barack Obama, who opposed Amendment 2 and who promised to repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) if elected. DOMA protects states from being forced to recognize same-sex unions.

Matthew Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel and Dean of Liberty University School of law, said, "The passage of this amendment is a bright star on an otherwise dismal night, in which America elected the most liberal President in her history. A supermajority of the people vote for values when they understand the issues."

Arizona's Proposition 102, which says, "Only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state," was also passed 56.5% to 43.5%. This was the second time the same-sex "marriage" ban has come before Arizona voters.

Proposition 107, as Arizona's original measure was called, was narrowly defeated in 2006. It is thought that the original initiative was rejected because it would have prohibited recognition of pseudo-marriage arrangements such as civil unions for unwed opposite sex or same-sex couples. Yesterday's measure, indicated Kelly Molique, spokesperson for the Proposition 102 campaign, was deliberately pared down for simplicity's sake.

One Arizona news source attributed the success of Proposition 102 to the energies of the nation-wide GLTB community being poured into California's "No on Proposition 8" campaign, which nevertheless failed. "National gay rights groups have funnelled [sic] much of their money into the campaign against Proposition 8 in hopes of preserving a right that exists ... By contrast, gay marriage already is illegal in Arizona by virtue of state law," says the East Valley Tribune.

California's Proposition 8 writes the true definition of marriage into the state constitution to protect it from further changes by the Supreme Court, who overturned the 2000 Californian vote to protect marriage in May 2008.

Since 1998, a total of 30 states have passed laws restricting marriage to heterosexual couples.

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