No Children - No Marriage

Washington State (my state of birth and residence until I graduated from college) has a ban on same sex marriage, which was upheld last summer by the state Supreme Court. A group called the Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance has proposed initiative 957 which would require heterosexual couples to prove they are able to have children in order to get a marriage license. If the couple does not produce children within three years, their marriage could be subject to annulment.

The group says they are trying to make a point because those opposed to same sex marriage say marriage is for procreation.

I understand they are trying to make a point, however I think they are misunderstanding and/or simplifying the reasoning to why many are opposed to same-sex marriages. While the ability to procreate is a part of it, it is not the entire reason. Also, they are missing the point that two opposite sex individuals are created to procreate. Some are not able to due to physical issues, but the reality is two individuals of opposite sex can do so. Two individuals of the same sex can never procreate and it is not just because of a physical problem on the part of one of them. They were not created to procreate with one another. Of course the bottom line for me is God's opinion on it.

Anyway, I just thought this was pretty interesting. If this had was passed prior to my getting married we could have had our marriage annulled. Our daughter was born after we'd been married for 6 years. Although at the three year mark we had moved out of the state.

The Alliance admits the initiative is absurd and plans to use it to weaken the ruling regarding the ban on same sex marriages. (see second link below) They also said the three years was arbitrary and they had thought about requiring procreation prior to marriage for the initiative but did not want upset fundamentalists too much. They just wanted to get people talking about it, so I guess I'm playing into their hands, huh!?!

Here is some other information regarding this if you are interested:

Wash Initiative would require married couples to have children - original article I read regarding this.

Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance, I-957 - the alliances website page regarding the initiative

Seattle PI, I-957 Article - more in-depth article on this initiative

Proposed Initiatives to the People - this is the official state listing of 2007 initiatives. Scroll down to number 957 to see a summary and to access the entire text in a pdf file.