Governor Argues Against Same-Sex Marriage Because Incest, Polygamy Laws Are Necessary
http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/davidbadash/governor_argues_against_same_sex_marriage_because_incest_laws_needed_for_different_sex_marriage
Republicans in Alabama are working exceptionally hard to derail two federal court rulings that struck down its ban on same-sex marriage. The state attorney general, Luther Strange, has said he will fight both rulings in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. But today, GOP Governor Robert Bentley filed an amicus brief with the 11th Circuit, making some mind-boggling arguments about same-sex marriage and its supposed impact on not only different-sex marriage and the law, but civilization itself.
For instance, Bentley's brief claims that same-sex marriage cannot be allowed to exist because anti-incest laws are necessary, and they would have to, apparently, be repealed, or not enforced, should same-sex marriage become legal. ...
The brief, as many would expect, also brings up the issue of polygamy, which of course is unrelated to same-sex marriage. And it of course also pushes the debunked claim that same-sex marriage deprives children of their right to a mom and a dad.
"Eliminating the distinction between marriage and non-marital relations," as Bentley claims same-sex marriage does, "would obscure the nature of marriage, frustrate the States efforts to distinguish between marriage and non-marital relations, and threaten the unique legal protections for the fundamental rights of children to have legal connections to their biological parents. That is the very foundation of the fundamental right of marriage upon which the District Court purported to predicate its ruling," he claims.