In order to curry favor with his conservative support base in an election year, President Bush will soon be promoting “healthy marriages.” The President is ostensibly working to develop supportive and nurturing relationships — at the cost of $1.5 billion — for the benefit of couples, children, and the nation at large. Yet the motivation for this project may be to undermine the recent Massachusetts precedent which upholds gay marriages. In November of 2003, the highest court in Massachusetts declared that the state’s constitution allows for same-sex marriages. This ruling has had the unhappy consequence of Republican lawmakers demanding a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriages in all states.

This healthy marriage initiative comes at a politically opportune moment for President Bush; it should pacify those who fear that traditional marriages are under attack. Bush has yet to acquiesce to the calls for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriages, but this initiative will certainly signal to his conservative support base that traditional marriages enjoy the blessing of the government. Indeed, Bush has stated that marriage is a union between man and woman. Thanks to the Defense of Marriage Act, all federal funds allocated for marriage promotion will be off limits to gay couples.

Mimi Hanaoka