Mark Dayton: “I am honored to follow the great Senator from Massachusetts and join with him and others in opposing this proposed…”

“I am honored to follow the great Senator from Massachusetts and join with him and others in opposing this proposed constitutional amendment. I do so because it is un-American, un-Christian, and unnecessary. Let us be clear that this proposal is not about protecting marriage in America. Marriage may need more people to practice it, but it does not need the Senate to protect it. The Founders of this great Nation exercised tremendous wisdom by designing a system in which Government would stay out of the private lives of its citizens and a system in which Government would stay out of the province of religion. This amendment would violate both. This country was founded on the principle that all men and women are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights. Among them are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. To secure those rights, our Founders wrote a Constitution which guarantees every law-abiding American citizen the same equal rights and protections. Our country's Founders were not perfect. In fact, they were highly discriminatory. They initially denied those full and equal rights to women and to African Americans. This country's social progress has been highlighted by removing those constitutional discriminations based on gender or race or anything else. Now, for the first time in our Nation's history, the proponents of this amendment would add discrimination to our Constitution.…”