President Bush is supporting the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment introduced by Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.). This is wrong. The wording of the proposed amendment is:

Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution or the constitution of any State, nor state or federal law, shall be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups.

When the word "only" appears in an amendment, it's a sign that someone gets a right and someone else doesn't. This is unacceptable. Perhaps the Judiciary branch has become too activist, perhaps not. That isn't an excuse to encourage activist, reactionary Legislative and Executive branches. Bad law will result from this mentality.

Here are a few links to sites for and against this amendment. Against the amendment. For the amendment. Against the amendment. For the amendment.

I care which side people vote for, but the main factor here is that this isn't going away. Inaction is worse than action. We're all going to deal with the divisive ramifications.

As for my opinion, it's ideas like this that scare me:

What’s wrong with letting same-sex couples legally "marry?"

There are two key reasons why the legal rights, benefits, and responsibilities of civil marriage should not be extended to same-sex couples.

The first is that homosexual relationships are not marriage. That is, they simply do not fit the minimum necessary condition for a marriage to exist - namely, the union of a man and a woman.

The second is that homosexual relationships are harmful. Not only do they not provide the same benefits to society as heterosexual marriages, but their consequences are far more negative than positive.

Either argument, standing alone, is sufficient to reject the claim that same-sex unions should be granted the legal status of marriage.

Stupidity. Not one of those arguments is backed by thought. I imagine these people respond with "Because!". Brilliant.

Worst of all, this is the reason given for the sudden push:

Republican officials said Bush's decision to proceed now was driven partly by his desire to start the general election campaign on a fresh issue, at a time when his credibility has been battered by questions about prewar warnings of unconventional weapons in Iraq, as well as doubts raised by Democrats about his National Guard service.

The Republican party admits that the president is trying to divert our attention from an issue that he doesn't want to talk about. How is this acceptable? I fear that this is going to work. We are a nation of lemmings.