First Things: Same-Sex Marriage, the Courts, and the People

By Robert T. Miller
Thursday, June 12, 2008

Twenty-seven states in the United States have amended their state constitutions to limit marriage to unions of one man and one woman. Even before the recent decision of the California Supreme Court mandating that California allow same-sex couples to marry, many other states were considering similar amendments. Pennsylvania is among them. On April 29 of this year, I testified before the Appropriations Committee of the Pennsylvania Senate concerning S.B. 1250, a bill to begin the process to amend the Pennsylvania constitution to provide that “No union other than a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as marriage or the functional equivalent of marriage by the Commonwealth.” Below is an abridged version of that testimony. the rest