• I support and have consistently supported passage of a federal constitutional amendment that defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman.
• As Governor of Arkansas, I led the successful effort to pass a similar state constitutional amendment in 2002.
• As Governor of Arkansas, I led the successful effort to make our state only the third to adopt "covenant" marriage.
• Our true strength comes from our families.
• I oppose any attempt to weaken the Defense of Marriage Act.

I support and have always supported passage of a federalconstitutional amendment that defines marriage as a union between oneman and one woman. As President, I will fight for passage of thisamendment. My personal belief is that marriage is between one man andone woman, for life.

No other candidate has supported traditional marriage moreconsistently and steadfastly than I have. While Massachusetts wasallowing homosexuals to marry, I got a constitutional amendment passedin Arkansas in 2002 defining marriage as between one man and one woman.I got Arkansas to become only the third state to adopt "covenant"marriage. My wife Janet and I upgraded our vows on Valentine's Day,2005. Today, many churches in Arkansas will perform only covenantmarriages, so I'm hoping we'll see a decline in our divorce rates.

The late Cardinal O'Connor decried a domestic partnership law (whichprovided that all couples who signed up, whether heterosexual orhomosexual, would be treated the same as married couples) aslegislating that "marriage doesn't matter." I agree with the Cardinalthat marriage does matter, I would add that nothing in our societymatters more. Our true strength doesn't come from our military or ourgross national product, it comes from our families. What's the point ofkeeping the terrorists at bay in the Middle East if we can't keepdecline and decadence at bay here at home? The growing number ofchildren born out of wedlock and the rise in no-fault divorce have beena disaster for our society. They have pushed many women and childreninto poverty and onto the welfare, food stamp, and Medicaid rolls.These children are more likely to drop out of school and end up inlow-paying, dead-end jobs, they are more likely to get involved withdrugs and crime, they are more likely to have children out of wedlockor get divorced themselves someday, continuing the unhappy cycle.

My wife Janet and I celebrated our thirty-third wedding anniversarythis past May. For us, every anniversary is a miracle. When we wereboth twenty and married just over a year, when I was in my lastsemester of college, Janet was diagnosed with cancer of the spine. Ican't tell you what a stunning blow it was - two kids just startingout, you don't think something like that can happen when you're soyoung. Yet there we were, staring death in the face. At first, theytold us that even if she lived, she might be paralyzed from the waistdown, so I'd be a young man with an invalid wife. After I learned shewouldn't be paralyzed, I was told that because of the radiation she hadto receive following surgery, we'd probably never have children. Iwanted children very much, I couldn't imagine never being a father.During that time, a lot of things went through my mind. But one thingnever did - the thought of leaving her. If Janet were in a wheelchairtoday, if we'd never had children, I can tell you this - she wouldstill be my wife.