This proposed amendment is vulgar on many levels; first Florida already has several laws on the books preventing same sex marriages. Secondly this amendment includes a clause that prevents if from being overturned judicially. It is more or less an attempt to manipulate the religious conservatives into showing up at the polls in one of the last remaining swing states; one that holds 27 electoral votes. It will abridge the rights of heterosexual couples in common law relationships as well.
The First Amendment of the US Constitution states; "Congress will make no law respecting the establishment of religion or the free exercise thereof." This was our fore fathers way of granting us freedom of religion and separation of church and state to the vast extent.
"All persons born or naturalized in the United States subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States and the state in which they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of the citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of the law; nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
That is the 14th Amendment and it pretty much guarantees every citizen equality under the constitution regardless of the state in which they reside.
The whole issue of marriage versus civil unions is another atrocity, and an argument of semantics. It is the evangelical religious right laying claim through legislation that they own the rights to the word marriage. Many people whom oppose same sex marriage seem perfectly okay with civil unions, accepting the act, but only by a different name; a rose is a rose. The etymology of the word marriage finds its origins in the 14th century as derivative of the Middle English marriage, which can be traced from Anglo-French marier to marry and in turn to the Latin word maritus meaning tied or trained together.
This is not an issue of all marriages being recognized by the church. It is one of having all marriages recognized legally by the state in order for all citizens to enjoy their guaranteed constitutional equality and right to be tied together in the eyes of the government regardless of gender. And while the Bible may have been translated into Latin, it was not originally recorded in it and owns no exclusivity to the words maritus or marriage.
Amendment two is unconstitutional.
No matter where our beliefs lie we are all human, we are all here together, and acceptance of each other is the true road to peace.
