ORLANDO, FL – Florida Family Policy Council President, John Stemberger, released the following statement in response to the Supreme Court’s refusal to accept appeals in marriage cases involving only the five states of Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin:

“The Supreme Court decision to not rule on these lower court opinions, which undermine natural marriage and the rule of law, has no legal effect in Florida and is only legally binding in the five states where the appeal was brought. Florida’s opponents of natural marriage are trying to argue that the Attorney General and Florida courts should ignore the legitimate process and procedure and become social change agents. Unless and until a federal appeals court over Florida issues an adverse ruling, then Florida’s current valid marriage laws should continue to be upheld by the Attorney General and Florida judges alike. Further, no same-sex marriage licenses should be issued, and any decision otherwise by a Florida court or a clerk of court, would be irresponsible and illegitimate.

The high court’s failure to take this matter up is, in part, a disregard of it’s duty, but it is also an indication that they are not going to force a “one- size-fits-all” Roe v. Wade type decision on marriage around the country.

Over the last 15 years, more than 40 million Americans in more than 30 states have voted at the ballot box to define marriage as one man and one woman – the same definition of marriage used worldwide. In the last nano-second of human civilization, some U.S. judges have attempted to ignore and erase those votes. The Supreme Court risks losing enormous institutional legitimacy if they ignore biology, logic, anthropology, social science and the collective wisdom of human history, and overturn an act of direct democracy by such an overwhelming number of American voters who protected marriage in their state constitutions.

Marriage is about more than who you love; it’s about bringing together the two great halves of humanity, male and female– not gay and straight. Also it’s important to recognize that legalizing same-sex marriage ignores and eliminates the importance of gender in society: it costs kids either a mom or a dad (who are not interchangeable), and it costs people of faith their First Amendment rights as government imposes the new definition across all aspects of society. States and counties that have so-called “non-discrimination” laws which cover sexual orientation are being used as weapons to punish people of faith, and mainly Christians, for failure to facilitate or host same sex marriage ceremonies. We as a state and a society need to carefully count those costs before we run headlong into this latest social experiment with marriage, which will have negative impact on so many areas of life and law.”

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