FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
On Tuesday, a group filed a constitutional amendment with the Attorney General seeking to remove Arkansas’ ban on same-sex marriage. Family Council President Jerry Cox issued a statement in response to the amendment.
“This is about redefining marriage in Arkansas,” Cox said. “This writes same-sex marriage into our constitution. Arkansans voted overwhelmingly in 2004 to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Almost one out of ten adults in Arkansas signed the petition to place Amendment 83 on the ballot. Seventy-five percent of voters voted for the amendment. I do not know of any other ballot issue in recent history that had so much support.”
Cox said support for traditional marriage is bipartisan. “When seventy-five percent of voters support something, you know it’s more than just Republicans or just Democrats making their voices heard. Governor Beebe has gone on record saying he supports marriage as the union of one man to one woman. Former-Governor Huckabee has said he supports that definition also. The Arkansas Senate and the Arkansas House of Representatives both voted this year to pass resolutions affirming their support for marriage as the union of a man and a woman. If there’s disagreement as to what a marriage ought to be in Arkansas, it’s outside the mainstream.”
Cox said the definition of marriage is a serious issue for Arkansans. “How we define marriage helps set the foundation for our society. We’ve seen how shaken that foundation has become in the past few decades as some people have marginalized marriage’s significance. Redefining marriage further would only inject more instability.”
Cox said he does not believe voters will change the definition of marriage in Arkansas anytime soon. “I think most Arkansans feel like we’ve already had this discussion. They’ve heard the arguments for and against same-sex marriage, and they’ve voted to keep marriage the way it’s been in this country for over two hundred years. There aren’t really any fresh arguments for redefining marriage, so I do not see Arkansans voting to do so anytime soon.”
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