Lawyer Was Ready for the Marriage Debate
WASHINGTON — When the subject of same-sex marriage crashed onto news pages and into the thick of public debate this month, an already drafted Federal Marriage Amendment was ready and waiting to be considered.
Matt Daniels is the lawyer who drafted the proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution defining marriage. The story of his upbringing does not resemble that of the traditional family he envisions for the nation -- and that experience has fueled his involvement in the cause.
Daniels was abandoned by his father and raised in poverty by a struggling mother. His decision to marry eight years ago was as much a leap of fear as of faith. Even today at 40, married with two children of his own, Daniels has yet to fully recover from growing up in a broken home in Spanish Harlem.
His upbringing left him convinced that the best environment for a child is the one he was denied: a home with a mother and a father.
Now, as Daniels helps lead conservative forces in the campaign to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman, he says he is not driven by animosity toward gay people but by a desire to ensure that other children are given the home life he never had.
"The absence of my father from our family left us vulnerable
His simple yet sweeping two-sentence amendment banning gay marriage -- but without prohibiting states from allowing civil unions -- has been introduced in both chambers of Congress. At least 114 lawmakers have signed on in support. President Bush has signaled that he might endorse it.
The proposed amendment reads: "Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union between a man and a woman. Neither this constitution or the constitution of any state, nor state or federal law, shall be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups."
Daniels believes that only a proposal preserving the right of states to allow unions other than marriage, such as Vermont's approval of civil unions and California's recognition of domestic partnerships, will clear the high bar of amendment to the Constitution. An amendment requires a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate and ratification by three-fourths of the states.
"This is an institution with unique benefits for kids and we tamper with it at our peril," Daniels said of marriage in a recent telephone interview, between press conferences and lobbying to build support for his Federal Marriage Amendment. "It is my belief that the union of a man and a woman creates a human community that has unique benefits for children."
