Listen to this articleAnti-gay Rep. LaVar Christensen released a bill titled “Family Policy” today that modifies language in Utah law relating to spouses and family.
“This bill: states, as the public policy of Utah, that a family, consisting of a legally and lawfully married man and woman and their children, is the fundamental unit of society; and requires that publicly funded social programs, government services, laws, and regulations designed to support families be carefully scrutinized to ensure that they promote the family,” states the bill’s highlighted provisions.
The text of House Bill 270 text invokes God, laws of nature, nature’s god, the creator and supreme judge of the world. It also calls for state policies to encourage marriage fidelity, and the “desired norm” within marriage.
The final paragraph states that state policy shall promote the “complementary roles” of father and mother.
The bill adds the following language to Utah Code Title 30, Marriage:
30-1-4.2 Public policy in support of family.
(1) The institution of marriage and family, consisting of the legal union of a man and a woman and children conceived and born to, or adopted by, the married couple as father and mother, is the fundamental unit of society and the optimum environment in which to nurture and raise a child.
(2) Marriage and family predate all governments and are supported by and consistent with the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God, the Creator and Supreme Judge of the World, affirmed in the nation’s founding Declaration of Independence.
(3) Marriage represents the legal sanction and approval of society and is essential to ordered liberty and public virtue.
(4) Procreation within marriage links generations and is fundamental to the perpetuity of humanity.
(5) (a) Families anchored by both a father and a mother, fidelity within marriage, and enduring devotion to the covenants and responsibilities of marriage are the desired norm.
(b) Cultures and societies where laws, practices, and public policies protect, preserve, and promote such enduring and time-honored family values and principles are happiest, healthiest, and most stable.
6) The furtherance and protection of order and public morality are legitimate and qsl substantial government interests.
(7) To the extent social problems arise that adversely affect the desired optimum family condition, such as the dissolution of marriage, crime, poverty, immorality, violence, and other conditions that place added responsibilities on individuals and communities through publicly funded and administered social programs and government services, laws and regulations shall be carefully scrutinized to determine how they impact the family and the protection of children.
(8) (a) The laws of the state shall, to the fullest extent possible, strengthen, safeguard, and sustain families.
(b) They shall respect and promote the essential and complementary roles of both a father and a mother and uphold this public policy for the greatest public good.
