U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) says be supports legalizing civil unions for same-sex couples as a means of preserving “traditional marriage” for heterosexual couples.
In an interview with KVNU Radio in Logan, Utah, last week, Hatch said that legalizing marriage equality nationally could have unintended consequences, and suggested that doing so would lead to “crazy marital scheme(s)” by “every Tom, Dick and Harry” looking to obtain the same rights and privileges of marriage.”
“I don’t believe we should be prejudiced against anybody,” Hatch said.
“But I do believe that we ought to maintain the 6,000 year marriage laws that we have, actually, at least 2,000 years, the traditional marriage. And if you start overturning things like that then, I got to tell you they’ll be every Tom, Dick and Harry in there with some crazy marital scheme demanding the same rights and the same privileges.”
Hatch added that he does not believe individuals choose to be gay, but that he draws the line on “traditional marriage.”
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Hatch’s assertion that marriage equality would lead to “martial crazy marital schemes” seemed to echo remarks just two days earlier by the head of the Georgia Republican Party, who said that legalizing same-sex marriage would lead to fraud by straight people who will claim they are gay so they can marry their straight friends and “get all the benefits” of marriage.
Hatch, who as previously supported constitutional amendments defining marriage as between one man and one woman, said that if the U.S. Supreme Court fails to uphold “traditional” marriage, it would open “a plethora of problems that the court will be forever trying to decide.”
