A proponent of a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in Iowa says legalizing same-sex unions here would be "evil." Iowa Family Policy Center president Chuck Hurley says children will suffer if gay couples are allowed to marry.
"From our perspective, it is evil to intentionally create a home where a child would be deprived of a mother or of a father. That is an evil act," Hurley says. "That is a self-centered act that we already know…on average that child is going to do worse than if he or she had a mom and a dad."
Hurley points to a study published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1993 that found children from broken homes fare far worse in life than those who came from a two-parent home. "I think it’s evil to experiment on children and intentionally…by law create households that don’t have a father or that don’t have a mother," Hurley says. "Yes, I do believe this is a battle between good and evil."
Ben Stone, the executive of the Iowa Civil Liberties Union, calls Hurley’s comments ludicrous and offensive. "The evidence is really quite clear that children raised by two women or two men in a stable home are just as likely to be upstanding, wonderful citizens as people raised (by) heterosexual, married couples," Stone says.
Connie Ryan Terrel, executive director of the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa, disagrees with Hurley, too. Ryan Terrel, who is a minister, says God teaches us to love, not demonize, one another. "So when Chuck Hurley talks about good and evil and compares people that are homosexual to Hitler and rape and incest, that is very troubling to me," she says. Terrel, Stone and Hurley were guests this morning on "The Exchange" on Iowa Public Radio.