Gary Johnson - Gay Marriage
Last Updated: Sep 12, 2011
Summary
Governor Johnson has a libertarian viewpoint on marriage. He does not believe that government should be involved in marriage, but that it should simply hand out civil unions. From this standpoint, Governor Johnson states that he support gay rights as his view places all couples on level ground with respect to the government.
In one 2012 interview, Governor Johnson stated that removing the government from the institute of marriage represented the freedom and liberty that the Republicans should be espousing. In another interview, Governor Johnson stated that government should get out of the marriage business and into the civil union business and leave marriage to the churches.
Early in the 2012 presidential election, a number of candidates signed a pledge called the Family Leader Marriage Pledge. The pledge called for the candidate to remain personally faithful to a number of marriage related items from the Defense of Marriage Act to a Constitutional amendment defining marriage. Governor Johnson was highly critical of the pledge, calling it the opposite of the freedoms of liberty that Republicans are supposed to espouse.
Governor Johnson does not specifically state that he defines marriage as between one man and one woman from a moral standpoint, but he does state that he does not support gay marriage, only civil unions.
Washington Unplugged
In February of 2012, Governor Johnson appeared on Washington Unplugged and discussed the issue of marriage. He agrees that he supports the civil liberties that would allow for gay marriage. The video can be seen here.
Interviewer: I know that you're in favor of gay rights. Do you think that this is an inevitability for the Republican party to take that stance or do you think that there will be more friction.
Governor Johnson: Well, it's freedom, it's liberty, it's ... How many times have you heard the Republicans talk about "I believe in freedom, I believe in liberty, and I believe in the personal responsibility that goes along with that?" Well in my estimation, that is what we should be believing in and espousing.
CSPAN Interview
In June of 2011, Governor Johnson was interviewed on CSPAN and asked about his views on gay marriage. He stated that government should get out of the marriage business and into the civil union business.
Interviewer: Let's talk about social issues. First of all, gay rights and gay marriages. What's your view.
Governor Johnson: Well, I think that government should get out of the marriage business, be in the civil union business, and leave marriages to the churches. So, I would like to think that I am in support of gay rights. Included in those rights would be the ability of gays to be civility united.
Family Leader Marriage Pledge
During the 2012 election, an Iowa group came forth and asks candidates to sign a pledge relating to marriage. Governor Johnson rejected that pledge, stating that it was counter to indepent traditional Repubicanism.
THE MARRIAGE VOW
A Declaration of Dependence upon MARRIAGE and FAMiLY
Faithful monogamy is at the very heart of a designed and purposeful order – as conveyed by Jewish and Christian Scripture, by Classical Philosophers, by Natural Law, and by the American Founders – upon which our concepts of Creator-endowed human rights, racial justice and gender equality all depend.2
Enduring marital fidelity between one man and one woman protects innocent children, vulnerable women, the rights of fathers, the stability of families, and the liberties of all American citizens under our republican form of government. Our exceptional and free society simply cannot endure without the transmission of personal virtue, from one generation to the next, by means of nurturing, nuclear families comprised of sexually-faithful husbands and wives, fathers and mothers. We acknowledge and regret the widespread hypocrisy of many who defend marriage yet turn a blind eye toward the epidemic of infidelity and the anemic condition of marriages in their own communities. Unmistakably, the Institution of Marriage in America is in great crisis:
- Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA‟s first African-American President.3
- BJ‟s 1965 War on Poverty was triggered in part by the famous “Moynihan Report” finding that the black out-of-wedlock birthrate had hit 26%; today, the white rate exceeds that, the overall rate is 41%, and over 70% of African-American babies are born to single parents4 – a prime sociological indicator for poverty, pathology and prison regardless of race or ethnicity. 5
- About one million U.S. children suffer through divorce each year – the outcome of about half of all first marriages and about 60 percent of remarriages, disproportionately affecting economically-vulnerable families.6
- The taxpayer-borne social costs of family fragmentation exceeds $112 billion per year, especially when all costs to the justice system are recognized.7
- Social protections, especially for women and children, have been evaporating as we have collectively “debased the currency” of marriage. This debasement continues as a function of adultery; “quickie divorce;” physical and verbal spousal abuse; non-committal co-habitation; exemplary infidelity and “unwed cheating” among celebrities, sports figures and politicians; anti-scientific bias which holds, in complete absence of empirical proof, that non-heterosexual inclinations are genetically determined, irresistible and akin to innate traits like race, gender and eye color; as well as anti-scientific bias which holds, against all empirical evidence, that homosexual behavior in particular, and sexual promiscuity in general, optimizes individual or public health. 8
The Candidate Vow:
Therefore, in any elected or appointed capacity by which I may have the honor of serving our fellow citizens in these United States, I the undersigned do hereby solemnly vow* to honor and to cherish, to defend and to uphold, the Institution of Marriage as only between one man and one woman. I vow* to do so through my:
- Personal fidelity to my spouse.9
- Respect for the marital bonds of others.10
- Official fidelity to the U.S. Constitution, supporting the elevation of none but faithful constitutionalists as judges or justices.11
- Vigorous opposition to any redefinition of the Institution of Marriage – faithful monogamy between one man and one woman – through statutory-, bureaucratic-, or court-imposed recognition of intimate unions which are bigamous, polygamous, polyandrous, same-sex, etc.12
- Recognition of the overwhelming statistical evidence that married people enjoy better health, better sex, longer lives, greater financial stability, and that children raised by a mother and a father together experience better learning, less addiction, less legal trouble, and less extramarital pregnancy. 13
- Support for prompt reform of uneconomic, anti-marriage aspects of welfare policy, tax policy, and marital/divorce law, and extended “second chance” or “cooling-off” periods for those seeking a “quickie divorce.” 14
- Earnest, bona fide legal advocacy for the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) at the federal and state levels.15
- Steadfast embrace of a federal Marriage Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which protects the definition of marriage as between one man and one woman in all of the United States. 16
- Humane protection of women and the innocent fruit of conjugal intimacy – our next generation of American children – from human trafficking, sexual slavery, seduction into promiscuity, and all forms of pornography and prostitution, infanticide, abortion and other types of coercion or stolen innocence.17
- Support for the enactment of safeguards for all married and unmarried U.S. Military and National Guard personnel, especially our combat troops, from inappropriate same-gender or opposite-gender sexual harassment, adultery or intrusively intimate commingling among attracteds (restrooms, showers, barracks, tents, etc.); plus prompt termination of military policymakers who would expose American wives and daughters to rape or sexual harassment, torture, enslavement or sexual leveraging by the enemy in forward combat roles.18
- Rejection of Sharia Islam and all other anti-woman, anti-human rights forms of totalitarian control.19
- Recognition that robust childbearing and reproduction is beneficial to U.S. demographic, economic, strategic and actuarial health and security. 20
- Commitment to downsizing government and the enormous burden upon American families of the USA‟s $14.3 trillion public debt, its $77 trillion in unfunded liabilities, its $1.5 trillion federal deficit, and its $3.5 trillion federal budget.21
- Fierce defense of the First Amendment‟s rights of Religious Liberty and Freedom of Speech22, especially against the intolerance of any who would undermine law-abiding American citizens and institutions of faith and conscience for their adherence to, and defense of, faithful heterosexual monogamy.
The Vow of Civic, Religious, Lay, Business, and Social Leaders:
We the undersigned do hereby solemnly vow* that no U.S. Presidential primary candidate – nor any primary candidate for the U. S. House, Senate, Governor, state or municipal office – will, in his or her public capacity, benefit from any substantial form of aid, support, endorsement, contribution, independent expenditure, or affirmation from any of us without first affirming this Marriage Vow. Furthermore, to uphold and advance the natural Institution of Marriage, we ourselves also hereby vow* our own fidelity to this Declaration and especially, to our spouses.
Government should not be involved in the bedrooms of consenting adults. I have always been a strong advocate of liberty and freedom from unnecessary government intervention into our lives. The freedoms that our forefathers fought for in this country are sacred and must be preserved. The Republican Party cannot be sidetracked into discussing these morally judgmental issues — such a discussion is simply wrongheaded. We need to maintain our position as the party of efficient government management and the watchdogs of the “public’s pocket book”.
“This ‘pledge’ is nothing short of a promise to discriminate against everyone who makes a personal choice that doesn’t fit into a particular definition of ‘virtue’.
Our America Initiative
Governor Johnson started the Our America Initiative as a 501c. On the civil liberties page of that website, Governor Johnson spoke about his support for civil unions. He does not believe that government should be involved in marriage.
Civil Liberties
The government should protect the value of individuals and their civil liberties. The government should not intervene in the private lives of individual citizens unnecessarily. Personal liberty and freedom from unwarranted governmental control or regulation should allow law abiding individuals to pursue their own desires as long as they are not causing harm to other people. There should be “less government, greater liberty and lasting prosperity for America.”
Governor Johnson does support gay and civil unions. However, he does not support gay marriage.
References
[1] Website: Gary Johnson 2012 Article: Gary Johnson Calls Family Leader Pledge “Offensive and Unrepublican” Author: NA Accessed on: 08/25/2011
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