[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 15]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 21302]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     MARRIAGE PROTECTION AMENDMENT

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                           HON. BARNEY FRANK

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 30, 2004

  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, during the debate last week 
on the amendment that would overturn Massachusetts' decision to allow 
same-sex marriage, I received permission to put into the Record an 
excellent article by M.V. Lee Badgett, refuting the shoddy scholarship 
of Stanley Kurtz, who has alleged with no logical basis that same-sex 
marriages have somehow caused a decline in heterosexual marriages in 
some European countries. I should note that Mr. Kurtz completely 
ignores, in his research, the most relevant example for us--civil 
unions in Vermont. But even with regard to the handful of European 
countries he analyzes, his work does not support the conclusion he is 
so desperate to sustain.
  M.V. Lee Badgett has done a very good job of refuting Mr. Kurtz, and 
I was glad to have a chance to insert her analysis in the record of the 
debate from last Thursday. Unfortunately, her name was omitted. I 
recommend, Mr. Speaker, that those reading this insertion who are 
interested in the subject go to the Congressional Record for September 
30, at page H7914, to read the article entitled ``Will Providing 
Marriage Rights To Same-Sex Couples Undermine Heterosexual Marriage?'' 
in which Ms. Badgett demolishes Mr. Kurtz.

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