NEA Supports Marriage Redefinition

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NEA Supports Marriage Redefinition

Special Report - July 17, 2009
The nation’s largest teacher’s union, the National Education Association (NEA), has openly pledged its support for efforts to give homosexual couples the same rights and privileges traditionally granted to married couples, and its opposition to constitutional amendments or laws that preserve marriage as only between a man and a woman. At its annual meeting held June 29-July 6 in San Diego, California, the NEA’s Representative Assembly adopted a new business item outlining the union’s “action plan” related to homosexual couples. According to the “New Business Item E,” the NEA will:

“support its affiliates seeking to enact state legislation that guarantees to same-sex couples the right to enter into a legally recognized relationship pursuant to which they have the same rights and benefits as similarly-situated heterosexual couples, including, without limitation, rights and benefits with regard to medical decisions, taxes, inheritance, adoption, and immigration;”
“support its affiliates in opposing state constitutional and/or statutory provisions that could have the effect of prohibiting the state and its political subdivisions from providing the same rights and benefits to same-sex couples as are provided to similarly-situated heterosexual couples;”
“take such actions as may be appropriate to support efforts to (a) repeal any federal legislation and/or regulations that discriminate against same-sex couples, and (b) enact federal legislation and/or regulations that treat same-sex couples and similarly-situated heterosexual couples equally with regard to social security, health care, taxation, and other federal rights and benefits.”

The business item adopted by NEA delegates also states that the NEA “recognizes that the term ‘marriage’ has religious connotations and that same-sex marriage may not be compatible with the beliefs, values and/or practices of certain religions,” and that it “supports the right of religious institutions to refuse to perform or recognize same-sex marriages.”