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With a push on by supporters of same-sex marriage to legalize it in New York State, supporters of marriage—including Archbishop Dolan—are mounting their own campaigns to keep marriage as a union between one man and one woman.
Within the last two weeks, a marriage rally in the Bronx drew several thousand people, the advocacy group National Organization for Marriage said it will spend $1.5 million in advertising and campaign contributions to head off same-sex marriage, and Archbishop Dolan wrote that the definition of marriage is “hardwired into our human reason.”
The archbishop also wrote that he’s dismayed to hear that Catholics and others who oppose same-sex marriage are branded as “bigots and bullies who hate gays.”
“Nonsense!” he wrote in a blog posting titled, “Marriage: the core of every civilization.”
“We are not anti anybody; we are pro-marriage,” the archbishop wrote. “The definition of marriage is a given: it is a lifelong union of love and fidelity leading, please God, to children, between one man and one woman.”
The archbishop said in the May 13 posting that upholding, strengthening and defending that definition “is not a posture of bigotry or bullying. Nor is it a denial of the ‘right’ of anybody.”
He said that in a “civilized, moral society, we have the right to do what we ought, not to do whatever we want,” and that “to tamper with the definition of marriage, or to engage in some Orwellian social engineering about the nature and purpose of marriage, is perilous to all of us.”
Meanwhile, the Bronx rally in defense of marriage May 15 drew some 3,000 people—a large majority of whom were Hispanics—who marched from 149th Street and Third Avenue to the Bronx Supreme Court building at 161st Street and the Grand Concourse.
Led by State Sen. Rev. Ruben Diaz Sr., a South Bronx Democrat, the marchers drew support from the surrounding neighborhood, with a number of curious onlookers joining in when they learned what was going on. There were many thumbs up, and a few thumbs down, from apartment windows overlooking the march.
Many carried signs reading “Marriage=One Man + One Woman,” and cheers of “Alleluia” and “Jesus” rose up periodically.
“We want to bring the word out there, the fact that marriage is between a man and a woman,” said Alex Soto, 33, a member of the Salem Evangelical Free Church who came from Staten Island to join the march.
At the courthouse on a rainy Sunday, the Rev. Diaz, a Pentecostal minister who also is a state senator, told the crowd that every state that has given the choice to the people has rejected same-sex marriage.
“I tell the governor and other who say Hispanics are for this—then let them vote for it,” Rev. Diaz said. “If people say yes, then we will shut up.”
Others who addressed the rally included Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage, who said that same-sex marriage opponents are “standing up for the right of our churches to stand up and speak about the truth.”
“Contact your legislators and tell them that marriage is the union between one man and one woman,” he said. “Stand up for what is beautiful and true.”
Gov. Cuomo has made clear that he will sign a bill legalizing same-sex marriage, but said last week that he will not introduce one in the state Senate session that ends June 20 unless he’s comfortable that the votes are there to pass it.
There currently are 26 confirmed “yes” votes in the Senate, where 32 are required to pass. Republicans hold a 32-30 majority, and there are four Democrats, including Rev. Diaz, who voted “no” last time it was up in the Senate. Diaz is considered a sure no again, but the other three are considered undecided. A handful of Republican senators are undecided as well.
The National Organization for Marriage, meanwhile, announced May 10 that it is spending $500,000 on a new ad and lobbying campaign to oppose same-sex marriage in New York and will spend $1 million in 2012 to support Democratic state legislators who vote against legalization and to oppose any Republican legislators who vote for it.
