Background of United Families Utah

There are a number of myths and a large amount of misinformation surrounding the same sex issue that interferes with understanding of what is fundamentally at issue.

The efforts of homosexual activists and their allies to legalize same sex marriage in reality is part of a larger strategy to force social acceptance of homosexuality.

Only a small percentage of people are homosexual, with research studies consistently finding about 2% of men in the U.S fall into that category. The 2000 census shows that only about 600,000 households in the U.S., or less than 1%, are composed of same sex couples. Clearly, just as not all co-habiting heterosexual couples choose to marry even though they legally could do so in most cases, not all same sex couples would marry even if they could. So, the people who might actually be affected is considerably less than 1% of Americans.

If the number of people who might benefit from legalizing same sex marriage is very tiny, the impact that taking this action would have on society and future generations is enormous. It would change forever the way society views marriage and the family. All of the implications of this change that we can reasonably identify would be negative.

Social science research overwhelmingly and conclusively proves the critical importance to a healthy society of preserving and promoting strong families. It has proven to be the best environment for bearing and effectively rearing children. This is why throughout history and across cultures, strong families have been the cornerstone of every successful society. Traditional marriage between the father and the mother of the children in the family has always proven to be a fundamental requirement for strong families.

Marriage and the family are protected in Utah by a state constitutional amendment, passed on November 2, 2004, which reads: “Marriage consists only of the legal union between a man and a woman. No other domestic union, however denominated, may be recognized as a marriage or given the same or substantially equivalent legal effect.”  Nevertheless, in the 2008 legislative session, homosexual activists attempted to promote legislation to forward the gay agenda in Utah, with proposed amendments for workplace antidiscrimination, wrongful death, and adoption for same-sex couples.  These bills were defeated or tabled this time, but they will be back next year.  As a representative from Equality Utah, Utah’s gay-rights advocacy group said, “We are ready to run it over and over again until it happens.”

In addition to defending marriage and the family here in Utah, we have to be active at the national level as well. The only certain way to protect marriage and the family is to amend the U.S. Constitution to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman.