Real protector of traditional marriage wants to bar divorce

California’s Proposition 8 - misnamed the California Marriage Protection Act - took rights away from committed gay couples that the rest of us enjoy by putting discrimination into the state Constitution with this line, “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”

I’m at a loss as to how gays marrying is a threat to my marriage or anyone else’s marriage, or how denying a group of people a basic right “protects’ an institution with a 50 percent failure rate.

It’s funny when you look at the marriage tracks record of some of the conservative Republicans pushing so-called “traditional marriage” like Newt Gingrich with his three marriages and infidelity, or Michigan attorney General Mike Cox and his stellar record. Even Livingston County’s Legislative delegation has a less than stellar marriage record, and these people are telling us about protecting marriage?

The height of hypocrisy was Senators Larry Craig and David Vitter co-sponsoring the Federal Marriage Amendment to the Constitution, known as the so-called “Marriage Protection Amendment” last year that denies gay couples the right that every other American enjoys, the right to marry.

The best way to protect marriage is to stop divorce, and that has led John Marcotte to take California Prop 8 a step further. He has filed a ballot initiative called "The California Marriage Protection Act." The initiative bars divorce, saying, “No party to any marriage shall be restored to the state of an unmarried person during the lifetime of the other party unless the marriage is void or voidable, as set forth in Part 2 of Division 6 of the Family.”

Now, that will protect marriage, so Republicans should be lining up to support it. In fact, Marcotte said he’s confident Proposition 8 supporters will rally behind the California Marriage Protection Act. He has established a web site with the slogan, “Till death do us part. You’re not dead yet.”

This should take off when the people who bankrolled Prop 8 start anteing up; that is if they really want to protect traditional marriage.