NEA Weakens Resolution Supporting Same-Sex Marriage

NEA Weakens Resolution Supporting Homosexual Marriage
By Nathan Burchfiel
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
June 27, 2006

(CNSNews.com) - The National Education Association (NEA) has dropped an amendment that was going to ask its convention delegates to support homosexual marriage and civil unions in all 50 states.

Cybercast News Service has learned that an NEA delegate earlier this month leaked the language of the amendment to conservative groups and the resulting protest apparently prompted the NEA to substitute it with a weaker version.

Instead of asking delegates to endorse homosexual marriage and civil unions across the board, the substitute asks convention delegates to endorse homosexual domestic partnerships, civil unions and marriage in states that already "legally recognize" the relationships.

Massachusetts is currently the only state that legally recognizes same sex marriage. Connecticut and Vermont have legalized civil unions. Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey, California and the District of Columbia offer homosexual couples some form of spousal-like benefits.

NEA delegates, who have previously approved language stating that "a diverse society enriches all individuals," are now likely to vote on the substitute resolution during the union's annual convention in Orlando June 29 to July 6.

Andy Linebaugh, a spokesman for the NEA, told Cybercast News Service that "leadership of the NEA has no interest in advancing a position on same-sex marriage."

When asked about the substitute amendment, Linebaugh first stated that he had "no idea what you're referring to." But when he was read the language of the substitute and asked whether it would come up for a vote at the NEA convention, Linebaugh said he believed it would, "but it has to go through the process" first of being debated.

Linebaugh said the decision to change the amendment was not a result of any protest by conservatives. However, two days after the American Family Association issued a statement complaining that the "Teacher's union begins plans to promote homosexual marriage in public schools," the substitute was distributed by Ohio NEA President Gary Allen in an email.

In the June 21 email, Allen told his membership that "there is a new resolution up for discussion at the July 2006 NEA Representative Assembly."

"We didn't respond to the AFA by changing the original amendment," Linebaugh insisted. "We responded to the AFA by saying the NEA has no position on same-sex marriage."

Linebaugh declined to address the original resolution that formed the basis of the AFA's complaint, offering only that the current amendment "clearly does not endorse or support same-sex marriages."

In an undated release posted on the website of its Kansas affiliate, NEA president Reg Weaver said the AFA had engaged in a "malicious e-mail campaign distorting the facts related to proposed amendment changes."

He added that the NEA "has no position on same-sex marriages, and leadership is not seeking to establish such a position."

Linebaugh refused to explain how, as Weaver claimed, the AFA distorted the meaning of the original amendment. "You'd have to ask them how they misinterpreted it," he said. "I'm not saying anything about distorting any meaning."

Dr. Warren Throckmortion, a psychologist from Grove City College in Pennsylvania who counsels homosexuals on changing their sexual orientation, told Cybercast News Service that the new amendment has been "cleverly wordsmithed" to voice support for same-sex unions in states that already recognize those unions.

He said members of the union "could look at these resolutions and take from it support for gay marriage."

"I'm not sure why they would need to say anything," Throckmorton said. "It already exists in the states. Why does the NEA need to make a statement to that effect?"