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March 02, 2004
A Little Pro-Marriage Whitewashing by the Family Scholar's Blog
When I read these statements by Tom Sylvester on the Family Scholar's Blog, my eyebrows went up.
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I don't agree at all with Ampersand that Sylvester's statements are "well-argued." It is doubtful that Sylvester has forgotten policies promoted by his fellow pro-marriage advocate, Wade Horn, that endorsed the very "neglect" he mentions above. Would he call Horn an extremist? I don't think so. Horn rejected those policies only after a coalition of groups, including gay and lesbian groups, and women's groups loudly protested.
Before Horn was nominated by Bush for his current position as HHS Assistant Secretary, he wrote the following in his 1997 article Marriage and Government: Government needs to change the tax code and welfare rules to provide incentives for marriage. At the time, Horn was president of the National Fatherhood Initiative and former U.S. commissioner for children, youth, and families. [Bold emphasis is mine.]
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The above article, which was published in November, 1997, was substantially edited from the original, which was published by the Hudson Institute in March, 1997. The language in the original was much more punitive towards single-parent (read: single mother) families. The original has been deleted from the WWW, but the Wayback Machine retrieved a copy of it. Bold emphasis is in the original
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Shifting funding from single parents to more "appropriate" married parents had been axed because it was too obviously punitive and discriminatory. Nonetheless, current fatherhood projects and marriage initiatives are not only just as dangerous, they have never been proven to work. While fatherhood and marriage promotions have received funding and publicity, mothers who need assistance have been ordered to work longer hours (even if they have very young children) and child care funding has been cut. So, those "other family types" are being neglected.
Here is a list of the coalition of groups who opposed Wade Horn's nomination for the very reasons about which Sylvester waxed poetic:
Abortion Access Project
ACORN
AIDS Action Committee
Alternatives to Marriage Project
American Ethical Union
Applied Research Center
Arizona Coalition Against Domestic Violence
Association of Reproductive Health Professionals
Boston Coalition of Black Women
Boston Women's Health Book Collective
Business and Professional Women/USA
Center for Community Change
Center for Reproductive Law and Policy
Center for Third World Organizing
Center for Women Policy Studies
Center on Fathers, Families and Public Policy
Chicago Jobs Council
Chicago Metropolitan Battered Women's Network
Children’s Foundation
Choice USA
Coalition Against Poverty
Coalition for Ethical Welfare Reform
Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights
Coalition of Labor Union Women
Colorado Center on Law and Policy
Communications Workers of America
Community Voices Heard
Democrats.com
Displaced Homemakers Network of New Jersey
Empire State Pride Agenda
EMPOWER
Family Economic Initiative
Family Planning Advocates of New York State
Feminist Majority
Finding Common Ground Project at Columbia University
Grassroots Organizing for Welfare Leadership (GROWL)
Hawaii Coalition for the Prevention of Sexual Assault
Hawaii State Coalition Against Domestic Violence
Hesed House
inMotion, Inc.
Institute for Wisconsin's Future
Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence
Jewish Women International
Los Angeles Coalition to End Hunger & Homelessness
Make the Road by Walking
Massachusetts Welfare Rights Union
McAuley Institute
Men for Gender Justice
MOTHERS Now
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
National Association of Commissions for Women
National Black Women's Health Project
National Center on Poverty Law
National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs
National Employment Law Project
National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
National Organization for Women (NOW)
National Women's Conference
National Women’s Political Caucus
New York City Gay & Lesbian Anti-Violence Project
9to5, National Association of Working Women
Nontraditional Employment For Women
North Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence
Northeast Missouri Client Council for Human Needs
Northeast Washington Rural Resources Dev. Assoc
NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund
PADS, Inc
Pennsylvania Lesbian and Gay Task Force
People United for Families
Planned Parenthood of New York City
Poor People's United Front
Progressive Challenge Project, Institute for Policy Studies
Public Justice Center
Rural Law Center
Sociologists for Women in Society
Survivors Inc.
Texas Council on Family Violence
Unitarian Universalist Service Committee
Voters For Choice Action Fund
WEEL (Working for Equality and Economic Liberation)
Welfare, Education, Training Access Coalition
Welfare Law Center
Welfare Made a Difference Campaign
Welfare Rights Organizing Coalition
Welfare Warriors
Women's Center at the University of Oregon
Women's Committee Of 100
Women Employed
Women's Environment and Development Organization
Women's Housing and Economic Development
Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press
Women's Institute for Leadership Development
Women's Law Project
Posted on March 2, 2004 at 09:33 AM | Permalink
Comments
The wayback machine always pays off for pesky edits.
I take the anti-single-parent shit very personally, and this crap was rightly opposed. I will marry no man for support. And frankly, with all the bullshit circulating around the marriage issue, I'm loathe to get married at all.
I'll take a civil union, thank you, or nothing.
Posted by: Lauren at Mar 2, 2004 1:00:57 PM