In the last several months, a handful of activist judges have insisted on changing the way society has defined marriage for thousands of years. Across the country, in one situation after another, it seems as if a chain of dominoes have been lined up and the first one pushed down.

In Massachusetts, the Supreme Court has ruled that their state constitution provides the right of homosexual marriage. In San Francisco, city officials went a step further and began disregarding state law by issuing over a 1000 marriage licenses to gay couples. Following suit, a week later, officials in New Mexico issued their first license. Across the country there are cells of individuals defiantly abandoning the rule of law. Sitting back and looking at the situation, it’s clear where we’re going. The dominoes are lined up, and they are quickly falling in one direction. 

Article IV Section 1 of the Constitution states, “Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state.” The proponents of gay marriage are intimately familiar with this phrase. They know full well that if they let the dominoes fall, all they have to do is find a federal judge somewhere to invoke the "full faith and credit" clause of the Constitution, and homosexual marriage becomes the law of the land in every state if allowed in one state. Just as North Carolina must recognize my driver’s license when I cross over the state border, so too may our state be forced to recognize out-of-state gay marriage licenses of individuals who have decided to move to Virginia.

If marriage is not "the union of one man with one woman," what is it? Who decides and on what basis? Many argue that a constitutional amendment to address these questions seems drastic and unnecessary. This is not true. Congress has already legislated to protect the sanctity of marriage through the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Especially in the last couple of months, DOMA may prove insufficient to stem the tide of activist courts. We have exhausted our options. Either Congress and the people decide this issue by exercising our right to amend the constitution, or we let the dominoes run their course. 

We can sit back and watch a single judge tie the hands of an entire state by forcing the conferment legal rights on parties of his choosing. We can watch small businesses agonize over whether or not to begin paying mounting health care benefits of employees’ partners, or face the devastating costs of legal proceedings. We can mobilize, and fight every court battle that comes our way until we are breathless and insolvent. Or, we just stop the chain of falling dominoes. We can seal this question once and for all. We can amend the constitution.

The simple fact is that the vast majority of Americans resent the imposition of homosexual marriage by extraconstitutional, and undemocratic, judicial fiat. They believe that there is a reason they go to the polls and elect legislators. And they also believe there is a reason judges are given their bench. Each has been given a duty, and under the separation of powers, each may not do the other’s task. 

Over one hundred Members of Congress have agreed and have cosponsored the Federal Marriage Amendment. I am one of these legislators. The plain language of this bill would amend the Constitution to define marriage as what it has been for thousands of years: “Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution or the constitution of any State, nor state or federal law, shall be construed to require (emphasis added) that marital status or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups.”

While most Americans recognize that the fundamental institution of marriage should not be made the subject of judicial experimentation, the direction in which we are heading does not hold much value for the views of the people. Amending the Constitution is the best and most reliable way to preserve the institution of marriage and protect the tenants of democracy. The ultimate power in our democracy is not in the Supreme Court, nor is it in a few special interests. It is in the voice of the people. Through this amendment, the people have the right to protect our nation’s future and the institution of marriage from judicial overreaching. 

As Virginians, it is important to remember that we did not line up these dominoes. We did not push this issue onto the airwaves and into the news. Nor did we bring this issue to the doorstep of Capitol Hill. Nevertheless, it remains our duty to stop the dominoes, because for all we know, the next domino may just fall in Virginia.

::  The War We Don't Hear About  ::

I recently had the opportunity to welcome home the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter BEAR as it pulled in to Portsmouth, Virginia. Aboard the boat were nearly 100 sailors who hadn’t seen their loved ones in months. 

Over the past four months, as we went about our daily lives, these sailors were fighting a war many people are unaware of. While at sea, the warriors aboard USCGC BEAR and the other dedicated members of the Coast Guard seized over 31,000 pounds of cocaine and 15,800 pounds of marijuana from the waters of the Caribbean. Every day these individuals risked their lives to intercept drugs headed straight to the United States, to our streets, and into our homes. 

The smuggling of illegal drugs into our communities has become on of the most serious threats to the health and well-being of Americans and to international security as a whole. Not only does the drug trade provide one of the principle sources of financial support for international terrorism, it undermines the security of each of our families. USCGC BEAR is not only protecting our children from destroying their minds and futures, they are making sure that the pocketbooks of terrorists around the world are not lined by the profits of this destructive habit.

When drugs reach our shores they threaten the very fabric of our nation. They break the bonds between parents and children, and between husbands and wives. They transform productive citizens into addicts, and make playgrounds into crime scenes and gang havens. Recent statistics indicate that nearly one-fourth of high school seniors reported using an illicit drug in that last month; almost 10% of 8th graders reported the same thing. Behind these numbers are countless personal tragedies. 

In the past twenty years, each of USCGC BEAR's twenty-one drug busts represents a significant battle we’ve won in the war on drugs. As the members of the U.S. Coast Guard actively fight to keep these drugs off of our streets, they remind us that we have a duty to reduce the demand for drugs at home. As parents, we must aggressively and unabashedly teach our children the dangers of drugs, and as citizens, we have a duty to treat addiction wherever we find it. For information on how you can do your part to fight drugs in our community, please visit my website.