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Obviously I support Jennifer Garrison for a lot of reasons, not the least of which being that she’s a whole hell of a lot more Republican than Jon Husted. But leave it to some dirty fucking unemployed hippie at Buckeye State Blog to find the goods: she’s smart. Smarter than Husted, smarter than Marilyn Brown, smarter even than John Kasich and his Wall Street mind. Look:
MARRIAGE SHOULD NOT BE DEFINED BY GOVERNMENT
Marriage is suddenly under the national microscope. Across our country, citizens are debating the question of gay marriage.
In fact, 30 people – many of them college students – recently rallied in support of gay marriage in Marietta.
To many of us, it may seem as if this debate over marriage dropped out of the sky.
Throughout our nation’s history, it was simply understood that marriage was between a man and a woman. If our shared heritage and our values weren’t enough to instruct us on the definition of marriage, Ohio’s law has been clear.
Yet as bewildering as the gay marriage debate may seem, we know precisely where it originated: In a courtroom in Boston, Mass.
Last November, the Massachusetts Supreme Court struck down a state measure banning same-sex marriage and instructed the state’s legislature to rewrite the law within 180 days.
It is troubling that a small group of Massachusetts judges are rewriting the laws of their state. As we learned in school, it is the role of judges to interpret laws, not write them.
Be even more unsettling is the fact that judicial activism in Massachusetts could set policy for other states. Under the “full faith and credit” clause of the U.S. Constitution, marriages performed in one state have always been recognized in another.
And this is why Ohio’s Defense of Marriage Act is so very important. It declares that marriages between people of the same gender are “against the strong public policy of the state” and will not be recognized in Ohio. It is hoped this should be enough to allow Ohioans to continue defining marriage for ourselves as between one man and one woman, and not have another definition forced upon us.
State Rep. Nancy Hollister and I disagree on this important issue. She voted against the Defense of Marriage Act. But I support it.
Marriage is a fundamental building block of society, one that predates our nation and even the birth of Christ. Ultimately, it is a statement about our values as human beings.
Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney – himself an opponent of same sex marriage – said it well; “The institution of marriage was not created by government, and it should not be redefined by government.” – I agree.
Jennifer Garrison
Editors Note: Jennifer Garrison is the democratic candidate for state representative in the 93rd House district. She lives in Marietta.
Do you think anybody else on the ballot could write that? I rest my case.
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