New York – A group of pro-family advocates called Intervenors filed motions to intervene in order to defend marriage laws of New York against challenges filed in three separate state courts by same-sex advocates.
The Intervenors are formed by the New York Family Policy Council, Senators Ruben Diaz, Sr. and Daniel Meier, Assemblyman Raymond Hooker, and business owner Michael Long and represented by Liberty Counsel, Thomas More Center for Law and Justice and AFA Center for Law and Policy.
Mathew D. Staver, President and General Counsel of Liberty Counsel, stated:
“The recognition of same-sex marriage would result in the abolition of male and female by making gender irrelevant, and the abolition of gender would have devastating effects on children. Children do best when raised with a mother and father.” Liberty Counsel is a nonprofit litigation, education and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and the traditional family.
Senators Diaz and Meier are co-sponsors of S2220, which provides that “a marriage or union is absolutely void if contracted by two persons of the same sex, regardless of whether such marriage or union is recognized or solemnized in another jurisdiction.”
Diaz , who is also the founder and pastor of the Christian Community Neighborhood Church in the Bronx and Christian Community Benevolent Association, and the president of the New York Hispanic Clergy Organization, said “I believe it is the job of the Legislature to define marriage for the State, including regulating who may marry.”
New York Family Policy Council executive director, Dr. Steven Kidder, said that the Council has been actively engaged to protect traditional marriage.
Assemblyman Hooker said that the definition and regulation of marriage is a legislative, rather than a judicial function.
Mr. Long is chairman of the Conservative Party of New York State and is a business owner who has sincerely held religious and moral beliefs that marriage should only consist of a union between a man and a woman.
