FEINGOLD OPPOSES DISCRIMINATORY AMENDMENT; SUPPORTS MARRIAGE EQUALITY

FEINGOLD OPPOSES DISCRIMINATORY AMENDMENT; SUPPORTS MARRIAGE EQUALITY

April 4, 2006

Washington, D.C. - Responding to a question posed at his Kenosha County
listening session over the weekend, U.S. Senator Russ Feingold said he
strongly opposed the proposed civil unions and marriage ban facing
Wisconsin voters this November. He also expressed his support for the
right of gays and lesbians to marry. Feingold holds listening sessions
in each of Wisconsin’s 72 counties every year. Later this year,
Feingold will hold his 1000th listening session as a U.S. Senator.

“The proposed ban on civil unions and marriage is a mean-spirited
attempt to divide Wisconsin and I indicated that it should be
defeated,” Feingold said. “It discriminates against thousands of people
in our communities – our co-workers, our neighbors, our friends, and
our family members. It would single out members of a particular group
and forever deny them rights and protections granted to all other
Wisconsin citizens. It would also outlaw civil unions and jeopardize
many legal protections for all unmarried couples, whether of the same
or the opposite sex. We shouldn’t enshrine this prejudice in our
state’s Constitution.”

At the listening session, held at the Village Hall in Paddock Lake,
Wisconsin, Feingold also expressed his support for the right of gays
and lesbians to marry.

“As I said at the Kenosha County listening session, gay and lesbian
couples should be able to marry and have access to the same rights,
privileges and benefits that straight couples currently enjoy,”
Feingold added. “Denying people this basic American right is the kind
of discrimination that has no place in our laws, especially in a
progressive state like Wisconsin. The time has come to end this
discrimination and the politics of divisiveness that has become part of
this issue.”

Feingold noted that removing the prohibition against gay marriage would
not impose any obligation on religious groups. He indicated that no
religious faith should ever be forced to conduct or recognize any
marriage, but that civil laws on marriage should reflect the principle
of equal rights under the law.