Rep. Marilinda Garcia: Marriage is 'an institution that makes no sense' for same-sex couples
In a 2012 speech on the floor of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, Marilinda Garcia said marriage is "an institution that makes no sense" for same-sex couples because they cannot “unite biologically.” Marriage equality, she warned, “will have devastating long-term effects.”
Garcia, the Republican nominee for Congress in the 2nd District, told her House colleagues that "marriage exists to solve a problem. That problem,“ she said, "is a societal problem that arises from sex between men and women but not from sex between partners of the same gender. That problem is what to do about its generativity.”
“A man and a woman who unite biologically may or may not have children depending on factors beyond their control,” Garcia continued, “but the point is that a same sex couple cannot thus unite, therefore the state has no interest in regulating their relationship.”
“The symbolic message of inclusion for same-sex couples in an institution that makes no sense for them would be coupled with another message,” she explained, “that marriage is about the desires of adults rather than the interest of children.”
Garcia was speaking in support of House Bill 437, legislation that would have repealed same-sex marriage. In its place, the law would have allowed any two unmarried adults to form a so-called civil union — including family members. The new civil unions would have been exempt from protection under the state’s discrimination laws.
From the House podium, Garcia related the story of Maria and Linda, two “loving, committed, emotionally- attached and supportive women” who raised her mother and for whom Garcia was named.
Why should these “women who shared their adult lives not enjoy all of the alleged rights that a man and a woman as a married couple can?” Garcia asked. “For me, it’s simple. It’s purely based on biology,” she said. “They can raise a child but they are biologically incapable of producing a child together.”
“Nobody argues that gay people marrying will cause marriage and society to crumble tomorrow,” Garcia concluded. “What we’re arguing is that the continual weakening of the institution of marriage will have devastating long-term effects. And we’re right, because we’re already witnessing that.”