If defining a marriage in the traditional sense of the word is now an act of bigotry, then, Lynn, there's an awful lot of bigots out there. While the Kanab city council may be fools, religious nuts - or even idiots, to define them as bigots (Irrational suspicion or hatred of a particular group, race, or religion: intolerance, prejudice. See like/dislike), is such a misuse of the word - such an overstatment, it can only lend an air of sympathy for the fools, making you, instead of them, the object of scorn and ridicule. At the end of the day, Lynn, the religious (idiots) view marriage as a contract between God, a man and a woman - and I'd bet a week's pay, that when you close your eyes and define the word for yourself, you see a bride and groom in traditional white gown and black tux - don't lie now...

If defining a marriage in the traditional sense of the word is now an act of bigotry, then, Lynn, there's an awful lot of bigots out there. While the Kanab city council may be fools, religious nuts - or even idiots, to define them as bigots (Irrational suspicion or hatred of a particular group, race, or religion: intolerance, prejudice. See like/dislike), is such a misuse of the word - such an overstatment, it can only lend an air of sympathy for the fools, making you, instead of them, the object of scorn and ridicule. At the end of the day, Lynn, the religious (idiots) view marriage as a contract between God, a man and a woman - and I'd bet a week's pay, that when you close your eyes and define the word for yourself, you see a bride and groom in traditional white gown and black tux - don't lie now...

Once again in an attempt to marginalize gay couples right-wingers have targeted other families as well. Their definition of "natural family" also excludes any children raised by anyone other than their biological parents. I hope this serves as a wake up call to "non-traditional" families everywhere-- stepfamilies, families with adopted children, single parents, or anyone raising children who aren't biologically related to them. This is about you too, they're saying that your family is "unnatural" too.

Once again in an attempt to marginalize gay couples right-wingers have targeted other families as well. Their definition of "natural family" also excludes any children raised by anyone other than their biological parents. I hope this serves as a wake up call to "non-traditional" families everywhere-- stepfamilies, families with adopted children, single parents, or anyone raising children who aren't biologically related to them. This is about you too, they're saying that your family is "unnatural" too.

Once again in an attempt to marginalize gay couples right-wingers have targeted other families as well. Their definition of "natural family" also excludes any children raised by anyone other than their biological parents. I hope this serves as a wake up call to "non-traditional" families everywhere-- stepfamilies, families with adopted children, single parents, or anyone raising children who aren't biologically related to them. This is about you too, they're saying that your family is "unnatural" too.

Yeah, Jeffrey, when I close my eyes and imagine people getting married, I too imagine a bride in a white gown and a groom in a black tux. They are molded out of plastic, and are stuck in the hydrogenated-soybean-oil-based icing on top of a flavorless tower of white cake. What of it?

Just because you can dredge up stereotypical images of something by closing your eyes and listening to particular terminology doesn't make that stereotypical image into god's given truth. I am white, and grew up in a very racist family in a very racist part of Ohio. Now I live in D.C., and I would like to think I am not racist. Unfortunately, if I close my eyes and think "black teenager," I don't at first see the two beautiful, brilliant African-American girls who live two doors down from me. I see the black-hooded-sweatshirt-wearing guy who glowers at my children and sells drugs in the alley behind my house. And if I write a "non-binding" legal memo suggesting that you shouldn't call yourself a black teenager unless you glower and wear a black hooded sweatshirt and sell drugs in the alley, then yes! I am a bigot!

This "non-binding" statement about marriage IS bigoted. Not because it reinforces sentimental images of two pure virgins in dress-up clothes making promises they will probably not be able to keep, but because it categorically excludes a certain group of human beings from calling their own promises to one another "natural."

Sure, their women are usually homemakers, but I'd like to see how many men in Kanab have actually built their own homes or do this for a living.

Its unconstitutional because it comes from the the Mormon religious doctrine, "the proclamation of the family" and thereby attempts to establish a religion. The city council should have rejected it on this basis, binding or not.

. . .this "Natural Family" talk isn't just based in Mormon doctrine, but has solid support from various other conservative religous groups. The Howard Center, for example, is constantly rattling on about the "Natural Family", and they strongly advocate for the support of this "Natural Family". Howard Center fellows have proposed repealing non-discrimination laws (so that men can be paid more and so there is no incentive for married women to work), have opposed girl's/women's athletics (because sports are unnatural for women), and are remarkably nebulous about issues such as divorce and domestic violence (they have argued that the party who initiates a divorce should not be able to have custody of the children). Naturally, they oppose both abortion and gay rights.

It would be easy to dismiss these people as fringe lunatics, but, in fact, they have been gaining influence within both the religious right and conservatism in general. For these people, a "Natural Family" is one in which men are in control, holding important jobs and earning a "family wage" while women are at home, constantly having children (and breastfeeding them, no bottles allowed!), and are "discouraged" from leaving the marriage by the threat of not only losing their children, but not being able to earn a living, either.

This is no laughing matter.