The efforts of homosexual activists and their allies to legalize same sex marriage in reality is part of a larger strategy to force social acceptance of homosexuality.

Only a small percentage of people are homosexual, with research studies consistently finding about 2% of men in the U.S fall into that category. The 2000 census shows that only about 600,000 households in the U.S., or less than 1%, are composed of same sex couples. Clearly, just as not all co-habiting heterosexual couples choose to marry even though they legally could do so in most cases, not all same sex couples would marry even if they could. So, the people who might actually be affected is considerably less than 1% of Americans.

If the number of people who might benefit from legalizing same sex marriage is very tiny, the impact that taking this action would have on society and future generations is enormous. It would change forever the way society views marriage and the family. All of the implications of this change that we can reasonably identify would be negative.

Social science research overwhelmingly and conclusively proves the critical importance to a healthy society of preserving and promoting strong families. It has proven to be the best environment for bearing and effectively rearing children. This is why throughout history and across cultures, strong families have been the cornerstone of every successful society. Traditional marriage between the father and the mother of the children in the family has always proven to be a fundamental requirement for strong families.

If we as a society legalize same sex marriage and irreversibly change the way future generations view marriage we will inevitably impact the family, an institution that is already under assault for a variety of reasons. We will have downgraded marriage from the present ideal-if not always attained-environment in which to raise children to something that is nothing more than a legal recognition of two individuals professed affection for each other.

While no one can predict the full extent of the impact of such a change, we can learn some sobering lessons from similar fundamental changes in the past, such as liberalizing divorce laws 30 years ago. One predictable result was that we have had far more divorces. But less predictable at the time the changes were implemented was a fundamental shift in the perception of how permanent marriage should be by those who entered into it. As a consequence we as a society are paying the costs too often associated with divorce, such as children living below the poverty level, lower overall academic achievement, higher rates of illegitimate children and substance abuse, more juvenile crime and others.

The bottom line is that legalizing same sex marriage would launch us as a society on a risky, one-way social experiment that no society has ever undertaken. The negative results of this experiment would only start to emerge several generations into the future. By then, it would be too late to correct them.

And for what? Merely to satisfy the demands of a tiny fraction of the population.

A majority of Americans as well as Arizonans understand this and oppose legalizing same sex marriage. In a democratic system, that should be sufficient to prevent it from happening. Yet, the reality we must all understand is that unless we in the majority act quickly and decisively, legalized same sex marriage will be forced upon us by unelected activist judges or by liberal legislators who willfully ignore the will of the people of Arizona.

It is also essential to understand that holding the line here is Arizona in defense of marriage and the family may still not protect us. What happens in other states, such as in Massachusetts which recently legalized same sex marriage. It is possible that these activist judges can force us in Arizona to recognize these out of state same sex marriage even though they cannot be performed here in Arizona.

.This is because of a section of the U.S. Constitution known as the "Full Faith and Credit Clause" which basically requires that a contract that is legal in one state shall be considered legal in all the states. The avowed strategy of the homosexual activists is to get one state to legalize same sex marriage. Then, couples from other states will come to that state, and it is already happening in Massachusetts, get married and then return to their home states and demand that their Massachusetts marriage be recognized. When their home state refuses to do so, as would inevitably be the case, they will file suit in federal court to force that recognition. These cases will ultimately go to the U.S. Supreme Court in an effort to get the court to apply the Full Faith and Credit Clause or in some other way force the legalization of same sex marriage on a national basis.

So, in addition to defending marriage and the family here in Arizona, we have to be active at the national level as well. The only certain way to protect marriage and the family is to amend the U.S. Constitution to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman. More information on the need for an amendment can be found on the Defend Marriage Web site. You can also sign the United States Petition to Defend Marriage on this site as well.