Lost in Your Translation

hat we arm you with the facts about marriage so that you can carry our message of truth to voters across our great state.

Take a minute and read through why marriage is worth preserving—you’ll soon find out what you need to know about why marriage matters.

Marriage between one man and one woman is in the public good. It serves the interests of men and women, of children, and of society itself.

• An overwhelming body of social science research and thousands of years of history show that children do best when raised by their married mom and dad.

• Protecting the interests of children is the primary reason that government regulates and licenses marriage in the first place. After all, government does not license or regulate any other form of intimate relationship - not friendship, or dating, or cohabitation. People are free, under the law, to live as they choose, cohabitate with whomever they choose and engage in sexually intimate relationships with whomever they choose - all without any governmental recognition or regulation.

• Children have a right to know and be cared for by their mother and father, and the government has an obligation to promote the recognition of that right by encouraging men and women to marry before having children. Stripping marriage of its male and female qualities will shift marriage from being a public institution that binds children to their parents to a new definition that focuses on the personal desires of two adults.

• Marriage serves a vital and universal societal purpose - to channel biological drive and sexual passion that might otherwise become socially destructive into enduring family units that have the best opportunity to ensure the care and education of any children produced by that biological drive and sexual passion. Indeed, the United States Supreme Court has said that marriage is, “…fundamental to the very existence and survival of the [human] race.”

When marriage is redefined and made a genderless institution, men, women, children, and society as a whole suffer. Marriage between one man and one woman has been the definition of marriage in Washington since statehood, and has stood the test of time for thousands of years.

You and I must work together to rally Washingtonians for the cause of marriage, or our society will pay the price. I urge you, join us in the effort to preserve marriage in Washington. Our children and grandchildren are counting on you and me to protect their future.

Sincerely,

Joseph Backholm, Chairman
Preserve Marriage Washington