Christopher Shays: “Today, we are debating a constitutional amendment drafted not to protect my marriage or my family, I see no reasonable…”

“Today, we are debating a constitutional amendment drafted not to protect my marriage or my family, I see no reasonable way to argue it would, but rather to explicitly deny a portion of our society the right to marry and the benefits that accompany that kind of partnership. I do not advocate the legalization of gay marriage, but our constitution is simply not the proper place to set this kind of social policy. I believed back in 1996, when I voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, and I still believe today, the decision about whether to recognize gay marriage should be left to the States. I cannot help but wonder why are we doing this. What are we so afraid of? Gay men and women pass through our lives every day. They are wonderful teachers and leaders and role models who happen to be gay. And sometimes we do not even know they are gay. I would not be a Member of Congress today if it were not for an extraordinary teacher I had in high school, 40 years ago. I learned years later he was gay and that he had commuted from Connecticut to Washington, D.C., every weekend in part to protect his privacy and his job.”