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Beshear Argues Same Sex Marriage Would Be an Economic Drag on Kentucky

dailycontributor.com

In a brief filed in court, Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear says same sex marriage would hurt the economy by not producing children. Meanwhile, supporters of same-sex marriage say their opponents are running out of ideas.

First, it was a matter of tradition. Then, a moral issue. Now, after courts across the country have thrown out multiple arguments in favor of banning same-sex marriage, the Beshear Administration is on the vanguard of a new logic: Dollars and cents.

In the brief, Beshear argues that because same-sex couples can’t biologically procreate—even though they can, say, adopt publicly-subsidized foster children—they are harming the Commonwealth’s long-term economic viability.

Laura Landenwich is an attorney for the plaintiffs in that case who want their marriages recognized by the state. She says that Beshear’s argument is “ludicrous.”

“It’s laughable. I mean, I would really like to know how many children were born, how many opposite-sex couples decided to procreate because same-sex couples were precluded from participating in the state’s institution of marriage,” Landenwich said.

Martin Cothran is director of the conservative Family Foundation of Kentucky, which opposes sex-same marriage, says that Beshear’s economic argument is the end result of liberal judicial activism.

“It’s sort of rigged in that sense. You can’t use tradition, you can’t use morality, you can’t use all these things now according to judicial doctrines as a basis for, as a rational basis for a law,” Cothran said.

Landenwich says her firm will respond to Beshear’s filing sometime next month.

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