As Kansas votes on abortion, Jerry Moran has a pro-life reason to back gay marriage
Why should Sen. Jerry Moran vote to protect same-sex marriage? Because it’s pro-family and pro-life.
The House of Representatives just passed the Respect for Marriage Act, which offers federal protections for same-sex marriages. Now the bill is awaiting action by the Senate. A few of Moran’s fellow Republicans — including Sens. Rob Portman of Ohio and Thom Tillis of North Carolina — have signed on in support. Because of the filibuster, though, at least 10 GOP senators will have to join Democrats to pass it into law.
And Moran’s vote is apparently in play.
So far, Kansas’ senior senator has been officially mum on his stance. But he is “the subject of some Democratic lobbying efforts” on the bill, according to Politico. That might come as a surprise to some of Moran’s supporters — as a congressman in 2004, he voted for a failed constitutional amendment that would have defined marriage exclusively as “the union of a man and a woman.” Moran has never seemed to entirely embrace his party’s meanest instincts, however. Maybe he can be persuaded.
So let’s try. There is a conservative case to be made for supporting the Respect for Marriage Act. Simply put, the bill would support and protect Kansas families.
Why? Because same-sex couples in Kansas are also conservative, at least in one important sense: The Williams Institute at UCLA, which researches issues surrounding sexual orientation and public policy, estimates that more than one-fifth of same-sex households in the Sunflower State are raising children. That’s the sixth-highest rate nationally, and all the states ahead of us — Mississippi, Wyoming, Alaska, Idaho, and Montana — are also Republican bastions.
That’s a lot of families.
And those families come with a unique distinction. “Same-sex couples are four times more likely than opposite-sex couples to have adopted children or stepchildren,” the Census Bureau announced in 2020. Same-sex couples are also more likely than straight couples to serve as foster parents.
The pro-life implications are obvious. The U.S. Supreme Court just struck down the constitutional right to abortion. Kansas might soon ban the procedure. If the anti-abortion efforts work as designed, there will soon be a lot more kids walking around. Some of their parents won’t have the wherewithal — financial or otherwise — to support them. Some of those children will need new homes. That’s on top of the tens of thousands of children who are already waiting for an adoptive family.
Who will take care of those kids? Maybe some pro-life straight couples. Shortly after the Supreme Court issued its abortion decision, a smiling couple went viral on Twitter in a photograph that showed them holding a sign: “We will adopt your baby.” That’s admirable. Gay and lesbian couples in Kansas and across the nation are already doing the work, though, and have been doing so for years.
Those families deserve some security.
If the moral case isn’t enough for the senator, maybe a political one will do. In 2004, the year Moran voted for the failed constitutional amendment, barely more than a third of Americans supported same-sex marriage. Today, that number is 71%. What about Kansas? That’s tough to say: Polling here is sparse, and the electorate is more conservative than liberal. Still, there is no reason to think the state’s voters are immune to the overall trend toward increased acceptance. Moran, who is on track to easily win reelection this year, probably has little to worry about.
So much about American life feels unsettled right now, including rights we once took for granted. The Respect for Marriage Act changes nothing about the way we live — but it does assure Kansas’ same-sex parents and their children their relationships won’t suddenly be torn asunder and rendered illegitimate by a fickle government.
That is what any of us would want. And it is why Jerry Moran should vote for the bill.
This story was originally published July 28, 2022 at 5:00 AM with the headline "As Kansas votes on abortion, Jerry Moran has a pro-life reason to back gay marriage."