Keith O'Brien Quotes

Giving public sanction to homosexual marriage ends up redefining marriage, and it's certain to harm children.

Traditional marriage between a man and a woman has been a cornerstone of our society for generations. If we are going to change that, it ought to be done by the will of the people.

We are redefining the concept of marriage to say that fathers are optional.

When people start reconfiguring marriage, there's no going back.

We believe that marriage, by its very definition, can exist only between a man and a woman. Moreover, study after study - not to mention common sense - show that children fare better in life when raised in a home with a loving father and mother in a stable, committed relationship.

We can practice tolerance while still holding true to cultural values that protect the institution of marriage as a union between only a man and a woman.

No Government has the moral authority to dismantle the universally understood meaning of marriage.

I believe in traditional marriage.

We will see a breakdown of the family and family values if we decide to approve same-sex marriage, and if we decide to establish homosexuality as an acceptable alternative lifestyle with all the benefits that go with equating it with the heterosexual lifestyle.

The state does not belong in bedrooms. So I'm not authoritarian. I don't say: 'You shouldn't do this, you must do that.' What I do say is that the state must have a preferred model, and the model that has served us throughout the millennia is marriage - a man and a woman in a union that is generally open to procreation.

Families are not merely constructs of outdated convention, and traditional marriage laws were not based on animosity toward homosexuals. Rather, I believe that the traditional family structure - centered on a lawful union between one man and one woman - comports with nature and with our Judeo-Christian moral tradition.

My thoughts are that marriage is between a man and a woman.

Marriage has historically, as long as there's been human history, meant a man and a woman in a relationship for life. Once we change that definition, then where does it go from there?

I don't think that a same-sex marriage is the way God intended it to be.

I don't support gay marriage. I'm just not there, as far as believing in my heart that we should change 2,000 years of social policy in favor of a redefinition of the family.

Republicans need to stay strong on the fact that marriage is between a man and a woman. Those are values that are true to the party and true to who we are. They could focus on jobs and the economy, but we all know that keeping the family structure intact is very important in our country.

Homosexuals can be, you know, committed to each other. And they have freedom to behave in the ways that they do, but they cannot be a family. They cannot be married. I mean, virtually every culture in the history of the world has considered marriage to be between one woman and one man.

Obviously, the institution of marriage in America has utterly collapsed.

I think that gay marriage should be between a man and a woman.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the definition of a marriage as between one man and one woman.

In my kids' school, the married family is an anomaly... which I do think is sad. I do believe in marriage.

Culture, what you believe, what you value, how you live matters. Now, as fundamental as these principles are, they may become topics of democratic debates from time to time, so it is today with the enduring institution of marriage. Marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman.

Yeah, I think that social conservatives recognize that they didn't just lose the debate about same-sex marriage. They lost the debate about the institution of marriage, and those two things were sort of connected to each other. The way people thought about marriage changed.

As far as same-sex marriage, I really would want to think about that a lot more given the fact that my focus would be always on the child. The innocent should not be given more even burdens than what is absolutely necessary.

I believe that in the historic and religious nature, marriage is between a man and a woman.