In an unexpected victory for family advocates, a New Mexico Senate committee has tabled a bill that would have established domestic partnerships. The decision came after convincing testimony by Brad Miller, director of the Family Policy Council Department at Focus on the Family Action.
“When I landed at the committee hearing in Santa Fe, I was told the Senate Judiciary Committee was going to pass this," he said. “It was fascinating to see how, even over the course of just minutes, their posture changed and they began to listen to what I was sharing.”
Miller explained to the committee that changing the definition of marriage would affect 700 regulations and have other unintended consequences.
Pat Fort, a Republican senior analyst in New Mexico, said Miller hit the ball out of the park.
“He would reaffirm what a lot of people believed about the importance of marriage that was being overlooked because the whole issue on the other side was ‘This is an equality issue,' " he said.
Stephen Hayford, a spokesman for the Coalition to Save Marriage in New York, said Miller’s arguments need to be heard in other states.
“It’s very important that our elected officials hear from New Yorkers who don’t want same-sex 'marriage,' civil unions (or) domestic partnerships,” he said.
