Marriage as Public Policy

In the 1990s and early 2000s, activists in California successfully introduced increasingly expansive legal definitions of same-sex domestic partnership—culminating in the 2005 law that granted domestic partners identical rights and  responsibilities of married spouses.

In 2000 Californians passed Proposition 22 which placed in statute a clear definition of marriage as between a man and a woman.  In May of 2008, the California Supreme Court ruled Proposition 22 unconstitutional thereby legalizing “gay marriage”—a legal anomaly that lasted just five months until California voters approved Proposition 8—a constitutional amendment with the same clear definition of marriage as Proposition 22.

For more than a millennium, western civilization shared a common understanding of the definition of marriage. However, starting in the 1970s, it became necessary to begin defining marriage in law as exclusively between a man and a woman—because what actually constituted a marriage came into dispute.

To read a narrative describing the trajectory of marriage as public policy in California from 1850 to the present, go here.

California Bishops' Statements on CA Marriage Policy (2008-2009)

Statements and pastoral messages from the California bishops regarding the:

• May 2008 California Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage,
• November 2008 passage of Proposition 8, and
• May 2009 Court validation of Proposition 8 as a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman.

Non-Sectarian Documents on National Marriage Policy

A number of national groups have focused on marriage as good public policy, including the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University and the Institute for American Values, and produced studies, reports and articles.

Catholic Public Policy Organizations

Catholics (or like-minded Christians) have formed a number of organizations that offer individuals opportunities to be active in advocating for public policy.  Listed below are a few of them.

• Catholics for the Common Good (CDG) is a lay apostolate for the evangelization of culture based on the social teachings of the Catholic Church. It is founded in response to the call of Pope John Paul II for the new evangelization and the U.S. bishops' call for faithful citizenship. CCG was invaluable in the Proposition 8 campaign to protect the definition of marriage in California.
• The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) is a nonprofit organization with a mission to protect marriage and the faith communities that sustain it. Founded in 2007 in response to the growing need for an organized opposition to same-sex marriage in state legislatures, NOM serves as a national resource for marriage-related initiatives at the state and local level.  NOM was a major contributor to the success of the campaigns in California and Maine to ban “gay marriage.”