On Oct. 16, a gay couple from Randolph, NJ, will celebrate their wedding ceremony.

For many… On Oct. 16, a gay couple from Randolph, NJ, will celebrate their wedding ceremony.

For many Americans, such a radical concept is cause enough to congregate outside the celebration in protest, but this particular union will most likely draw an even larger crowd of protestors.

The reason? This couple has planned their union during Marriage Protection Week. From Oct. 12 – 18, people from around the country will be protesting this same-sex union as part of a national campaign.

Last week, President George W. Bush declared this week Marriage Protection Week. In his Oct. 3 address, the president called on all Americans to join him “in expressing support for the institution of marriage with all its benefits to our people, our culture and our society.” This seems to be a rather indiscriminate campaign, until he went on to define marriage as “a union between a man and a woman.”The designation of this national week has sparked diligent debate between gay and lesbian rights activists and conservative groups such as the American Family Association.

The Family Association has developed a Marriage Protection Week Web site that propagates the idea that legalized same-sex marriages are a threat to what they describe as the sacred institution of marriage between a man and a woman.

Donald E. Wildmon, chairman of the American Family Association, writes that the union of a man and a woman is “the God-ordained building block of the family and bedrock of a civil society.”

ourage America’s children to become gay; will increase the spread of AIDS; and will increase social problems such as premarital childbearing, illicit drug use, arrest, health and emotional problems, poverty and school failure or expulsion.

If this isn’t a bunch of malarkey, I don’t know what is.

This list describes issues that are prevalent among America’s youth that have nothing to do with whether kids have gay or straight parents.

This national week is attacking the wrong group of people. President Bush and other anti-gay activists are using the gay population as a scapegoat by blaming the lack of civility in our society on homosexuality.

Rather than expend such energy in a fight to curtail two individuals from legally recognizing their love and commitment toward each other, these groups ought to fight to reaffirm these so-called family values in pre-existing households.

As far as I’m concerned, having two fathers is a lot better for a child growing up than not having a father at all. Much of the violence among children and teenagers today stems from a lack of any family structure in their lives.

While about 55 percent of the population opposes gay marriages, according to a CBS News poll, younger Americans are more likely to be accepting of laws that permit it. The same poll showed that 61 percent of 18 to 29 year olds favor it.

It seems the older generation in America is a little behind the times in their opposition. For example, Vermont has already approved civil unions, the Supreme Court has decided that anti-sodomy laws are unconstitutional, Canada is moving toward the national acknowledgement of gay marriage, the Episcopal Church has ordained an openly gay bishop and blesses same-sex unions and in the Netherlands gay marriage has been legal since December, 2000.

According to a Washington Post article, gay marriage in the Netherlands has become so accepted that about 8 percent of marriages there are between gay couples.

Helene Faasen of the Netherlands said on datalounge.com that gay marriage doesn’t destroy families, it increases the number of families. In a nation such as the U.S. in which one-parent households are becoming more common every day, the idea of limiting marriage rights in any way contributes to the problem rather than offering a solution to it.

So whether the gay couple in New Jersey is trying to make a political statement in opposition to Marriage Protection Week, one thing is certain: They are celebrating and professing their love in a binding commitment to each other. In my mind, they are upholding the sanctity of marriage as it benefits all people in a civil society.