New campaign says children are ‘true victims’ of legalizing same-sex marriage

Advocacy groups and a pro-family organization are launching a campaign to highlight how legalizing same-sex marriage has threatened children’s rights.

Launched on Jan. 28, the “Greater Than” campaign is a project of Them Before Us, a nonprofit “dedicated to defending every child’s natural right to their mother and father in law, culture, and policy.”

The group maintains that same-sex marriage threatens children’s rights to have a mother and a father — something key in childhood development, the campaign argues.

The effort “centers the true victims — children deprived of their mother or father — rather than adults who mistake unfulfilled wants for harm,” according to a campaign press release.

Greater Than aims to protect children’s rights and overturn the landmark 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision that guaranteed a right to same-sex marriage.

“Since the redefinition of marriage a decade ago, we’ve seen the consequences: parenthood treated as replaceable and children deprived of the unique love and guidance only a mother and father can provide,” said Katy Faust, founder and president of Them Before Us.

Faust, a children’s rights advocate and mother of four, has spent more than a decade advocating for justice for children.

“Ten years of Obergefell have shown us, loud and clear, that children deserve better and that they are Greater Than adult desires — and it’s time we make a change,” Faust said.

That aim “is why this coalition of parents, faith leaders, influencers, nonprofits, and policymakers have linked arms to undo the harm of Obergefell, push SCOTUS to overturn it, and to protect the rights of children nationwide,” she said.

Greater Than cites cases of abuses of in vitro fertilization, which the group links to a lack of legislation protecting children due to Obergefell. For instance, in California last year, a couple was arrested on suspicion of abuse and neglect after allegedly creating more than 20 children through IVF.

In another case, a sex offender obtained a child via IVF. A 74-year-old California man also acquired two children through IVF and kept them in cages.

The coalition behind the campaign includes several national organizations and individuals with Catholic ties, including Live Action, CatholicVote, Abby Johnson, the Ruth Institute, and Word on Fire Institute.

Jennifer Roback Morse, founder and president of the Ruth Institute, which promotes Catholic sexual ethics, told EWTN News that “the needs of children place legitimate limits on the behavior of adults.”

“Every child has a right to be in a relationship with his or her parents, except for an unavoidable tragedy,” Morse said. “Every child, without exception, has the right to know his or her genetic identity and cultural heritage.

“Uniting mothers and fathers to their children and to each other protects these interests of children,” she continued. “This is the essential public purpose of marriage. Most of the conversation about marriage concerns inessential, private aspects of marriage.”

The Catholic Church calls all people to chastity, which the Church defines as “successful integration of sexuality within the person” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2337). The Church teaches that homosexual acts “are contrary to the natural law” as they “close the sexual act to the gift of life” (CCC, 2357).

The campaign does not argue that gay people are bad parents; the organization notes on its website that “a woman who identifies as a lesbian can be a loving mother, but she cannot be a father. A gay man can be a loving father, but he cannot be a mother. Children need, deserve, and have a right to both.”

The Church emphasizes that people experiencing same-sex attraction “must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity” and that “every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided” (CCC, 2358).

Centering the conversation on children

The American Family Association, a “core ally” of the group, said the move is about focusing on the needs of children.

“For too long, the desires of adults have driven the policy discussion surrounding the homosexual and transgender agenda,” Walker Wildmon, a vice president of the American Family Association, said in a press release shared with EWTN News.

“It is time we refocus our attention on the needs of children,” Wildmon said. “All children are created in the image of God and have a right to both a mother and father. This project is timely and necessary for the purpose of reestablishing this fundamental truth in society and government.”

Focus on the Family, another organization supporting the campaign, said it “wholeheartedly embrace[s] Greater Than’s conviction that real progress means putting children’s needs ahead of adult desires.”

“When the needs of children are neglected, it’s not just the children who suffer. Families are hurt and society itself is destabilized,” said Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family. “We see the tragic evidence of this all around us.”

Protestant evangelical author and speaker Lisa Bevere tied the campaign back to love.

“If our lives are ultimately measured by how we love and protect others, then we must answer this question: ‘Did we create communities where children were loved, valued, and protected — or did we allow cowardice and cultural confusion to leave a generation at risk?’” Bevere said.