A Sacramento man wants to ban divorce in California.
A T-shirt design for the 2010 California Marriage Protection Act shows a married, heterosexual couple bound by chains. The act would ban divorce in the Golden State. (Photo courtesy of RescueMarriage.org)
John Marcotte filed an initiative – the California Marriage Protection Act – with the state attorney general’s office last week. The initiative says: “No party to any marriage shall be restored to the state of an unmarried person during the lifetime of the other party unless the marriage is void or voidable, as set forth in Part 2 of Division 6 of the Family Code.”
Marcotte told KXTV News 10 in Sacramento the initiative is a “logical extension” of Proposition 8, the state’s voter-approved Constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
“Everyone wants to protect traditional marriage, I just thought Prop. 8 supporters went about it in a strange way,” Marcotte said, in an e-mail question and answer with San Diego News Network. “I’m attacking the heart of the issue. If you want to protect marriage, make sure that it can’t be dissolved. Ever. Problem solved.”
Marcotte’s initiative is generating buzz, for its content and the often tongue-in-cheek nature with which it’s presented.
According to the News 10 reporter, Marcotte has “engineered a number of harmless social pranks” – including a stunt where Marcotte and friends put a giant pair of Groucho glasses on a statue in a Sacramento shopping center last year.
The Web site says, “You said ’til death do us part. You’re not dead yet.”; “Jesus still loves you if you get divorced – just not as much as before.”; and “Hell is eternal – just like your marriage was supposed to be.”
Marcotte said the accusation that he’s kidding is “deeply offensive” and that the divorce ban is a “centrist position with broad, apolitical appeal.”
” … It just goes to show you how out of touch with mainstream America the liberal media has become,” said Marcotte, a married father of two. “They want to laugh me off as a joke, so that they can dismiss the very real traditional values my movement represents. Secular progressives like Brian Williams, Wolf Blitzer and Mario Lopez would rather concentrate their efforts on advocating for death panels, promoting socialism and discovering who Kim Kardashian is fornicating with this month.”
Marcotte said he’s confident Proposition 8 supporters will rally behind the California Marriage Protection Act.
“After all, [Proposition 8 supporters] weren’t trying to take rights away from gay people; they were just trying to protect traditional marriage,” Marcotte said. “I’m sure they will support this 100 percent, even if this time it is their rights that get diminished. It would be hypocritical for them not to support us.”
With regard to gay rights advocates and Proposition 8’s opponents, Marcotte said, “We are making great strides in the ‘hell-bound sinner’ demographic.”
The divorce ban would apply to opposite — and same-sex couples. More than 18,000 same-sex couples married in California before Proposition 8 passed in November.
“Jesus clearly said that divorce is a sin: ‘What God has joined together, let no man separate,’” Marcotte said. ”But, he never even mentioned homosexuals or homosexual behavior. Probably a clerical oversight, but still …
“So while being gay is sinful, it appears that Jesus felt that getting divorced was a larger sin. So I think gay people who happened to get married while it was legal to do so will have no choice but to remain married. But since being gay is also sinful, I think that homosexual couples should sleep in separate beds and refrain from having sex – just like real married couples.”
Whether he’s serious or satirizing, there’s no indication Marcotte is being dismissed. CNN picked up the News 10 story and Friday, Marcotte was forced to upgrade servers when an influx of users crashed the site RescueMarriage.org. The initiative’s Facebook page has more than 1,900 fans with more than 200 added since Monday evening.
Marcotte said he wasn’t planning to ramp up outreach until petitions were prepared to circulate, but the media attention and public interest are fueling the fire. There are still those, though, who haven’t heard of the California Marriage Protection Act.
Charles LiMandri, a San Diego lawyer who supported Proposition 8, told an administrative assistant he had not heard of Marcotte’s initiative, and he declined to comment.
Some Proposition 8 opponents – who are planning a grassroots campaign to repeal the same-sex marriage ban in 2010 – are amused by Marcotte’s initiative. The Marriage Protection Act Facebook page has a number of gay fans.
Lisa Kove, a San Diego member of the 11-person Interim Administrative Board of Restore Equality 2010, suggested Marcotte reach out to hotelier Doug Manchester, a supporter of “traditional marriage” who donated $125,000 to Proposition 8, and who CityBeat reported is split from his wife.
“[Doug Manchester] should contribute another $125,000 to secure traditional marriage’s protection from divorce,” Kove said.
When asked whether he thinks gay rights advocates will push a repeal of Proposition 8 through to the 2010 ballot, Marcotte said, “Oh, I know there will be. There is always some fool out there willing to abuse the initiative process just to make a point.”
