Michigan is among the states facing a legal challenge to its ban on marriage equality, and the state attorney general has decided to pull out all the most offensive arguments possible in defending the law. In a brief filed in U.S. District Court, Attorney General Bill Schuette (no points for guessing he’s a Republican) insists that the state has the right to “regulate sexual relations between man and woman so that the unique procreative capacity of such relationships benefits rather than harms society.” In other words, it’s all about the baby-making, and anything else is just wrong, wrong, wrong.
The case that elicited this half-baked and long-discredited argument from Schuette involves April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse, who say that the state’s ban on same-sex adoption and on marriage equality violates their rights.
Schuette, either out of desperation or ignorance, is relying upon arguments that have completely failed in other courts, most notably in the defense of California’s Proposition 8. Undeterred, Schuette forged on in his brief. “The understanding of marriage as a union of man and woman, uniquely involving the rearing of children born of their union, is age-old, universal, and enduring. As illustrated by a plethora of research, social scientists have consistently recognized the essential connection between marriage and responsible procreation and childrearing.”
Um, would that be the same research that Russia is citing to support legislation to take children away from gay parents?
How about we take this to the next level?
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GayTampaCowboy
Amazing! They tried that argument in the PROP 8 case and it failed miserably! (Remember Justice Ginsburg’s comments?).
This is just a delying tactic….he knows the court will strike down their law, but will waste taxpayer money to defend a law that’s clearly unconstitutional…so it’s just a way to delay that ruling and HURT gay couples in the meantime!
Deepdow
99% percent of all hetero sex does not lead to procreation.
Kill them then, RIGHT?
Elloreigh
This is no suprise coming from Bill Schuette. Michigan is about as Republican as it gets – Republican state house, Republican state senate, Republican governor, and a Republican majority on our state supreme court. All too often it’s Republicans of the crazy kind.
Scribe38
@Elloreigh: you are so right! Can’t wait to finish my degree so I can move the hell out of this anti-gay, anti-minority state
Spike
Same tired argument they used as it involved interracial marriage.
They will be on the wrong side of history.
nature boy
The civil rights curve on this issue is far enough along that the people who keep fighting it really expose themselves as not being very bright at all. The smart people have already “evolved.” The dummies will be apologizing in 30 years. Glad their stupidity is memorialized and exposed online.
Larkin
He’s trying to further establish is conservative street rep for a run to higher office. Too bad the only thing he’s qualified for is being a janitor.
Eiswirth
What century does this asshole live in?
Ken
The US Supreme Court ruled long ago that married people have the right not to procreate, and that people, such as prisoners on death row, who cannot procreate or even have sex, have the right to marry. Any argumentation based on procreation or genitals as jigsaw-puzzle pieces is legally irrelevant, but Schuette’s future constituents don’t know that. They want that argumentation to come before the court, and Schuette is happy to oblige them, because when he loses, they will see him as their champion and the “activist court” as the villain.
Then he plans to rake in their votes like poker chips.