I do not think there is any principle I have ever seen more frequently enunciated and less frequently followed than states' rights from the Republicans. What they mean is that the states will do whatever they tell them to do. Mr. Chairman, I do not claim to be a states' rights advocate. I think there are times, given a national economy, when a national uniform solution is the only sensible one, but this is not one of them. I want to be particularly clear now.
People talk about their marriages being threatened.
I find it implausible that two men deciding to commit themselves to each other threatens the marriage of people a couple of blocks away. I find it bizarre, even by the standards that my Republican colleagues are using for this political argument here, to tell me that two women falling in love in Hawaii, as far away as you can get and still be within the United States, threatens the marriage of people in other states. The Federal Government is running to the rescue. It would seem to be clear that divorce does more to dissolve marriages than gay marriages. It is extraordinary to have people talking about how marriage is in peril.