Frame 1

Society benefits whenever people make a public lifetime commitment to one another.

Talking points:

• Love and commitment are fundamental to all Americans
• The government should not tell people who they can and can't marry
• We believe in equal rights
• Marriage is like baptism or other life cycle events and the method of their being performed should be a private issue. The Government's role should be limited to recordkeeping. The individuals involved should be free to celebrate these events in the church of their choosing, in a backyard, on a beach, or in a Vegas casino. We don't want a government bureaucracy getting into the business of regulating these personal celebrations.
  
• There is precedence. Civil divorce is not recognized by either Jews or Catholics. But in the eyes of the government the couple is divorced.
  
• If we deny basic civil rights to loving and committed couples, how and where do we draw the line? Will the government next decide that a convent of nuns cannot visit one another in the hospital, cannot make decisions for one another when incapacitated, or lose their joint inheritance rights? What about a situation like Sarah and Elizabeth Delany -- two elderly sisters living together? Which government bureaucracy will decide which couple lose their civil rights and which couples are protected?
  
• If people love one another and are willing to take responsibility for one another, there will be less strain on the government to provide services.