Brothers and sisters, we are gathered here today in the fight for a great, great cause. It is a fight for the future of our country over what kind of country we will have. It is a fight for a great good. The future of marriage. . . . And this my friends is something worth fighting for.
I believe that this fight is the beginning of a new civil rights movement, and I don’t say that in any shallow way. I mean it. And what I mean is this: that in states and jursidictions that fundamentally redefine marriage, there are consequences . . . . They are immediate; they are clear and profound. We must stand up for our civil rights to hold our faith and raise our children as we see fit without being labeled as bigots. . . .
When we are told that we are bigots, and when the law puts this powerful new idea to work, it means that we will be punished, repressed and marginalized, and we don’t have to guess at how this will happen. When we look to Massachusetts and we see the Catholic Charities adoption agency trying to live out its gospel mission . . . and it is put out business because they believe children deserve a mother and father, don’t ask me what the consequences of same-sex marriage are. . . .
When our children are taught in schools that it’s the same thing for Jimmy to grow up and marry Johnny as it is to marry Mary, and we the parents are bigots for teaching them otherwise, there is a core civil right that has just been abridged. . . .
