California Approves Overnight Visits for “Partners” of Homosexual Prisoners
Same-Sex Conjugal Visits for Inmates Stir Debate
By Randy Hall, CNSNews.com Staff Writer/Editor – June 06, 2007
(CNSNews.com) – California’s decision to allow overnight visits for registered domestic partners of prison inmates has drawn praise from homosexual advocacy groups as furthering “marriage equality,” but conservative pro-family activists say the state is “sponsoring immorality.”
“California is continuing to tear down the fabric of godly marriage by encouraging and recognizing domestic partners whose lifestyles are immoral,” Phil Magnan, director of Biblical Family Advocates, said in a statement Tuesday.
“Though visits by family or friends can be helpful, encouraging immoral behavior is not the road to recovery,” he argued. If the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation “is truly committed to rehabilitation, they should reconsider the gravity of sponsoring immorality by those under their care” and reject “state-sponsored sodomy.”
Randy Thomasson, president of the Campaign for Children and Families, went even further, objecting to conjugal visits for all of 170,000 inmates in the state, whether homosexual or heterosexual.
“These are unsupervised sex visits in trailers or rooms, and the guards can’t go in there,” Thomasson told Cybercast News Service. “It’s the main way of smuggling in contraband for some of these inmates” and can also further the spread sexually transmitted diseases, he added.
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Full Statement from Biblical Family Advocates:
[San Diego / Christian Newswire/ June 5]The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, responding to a potential legal action by the ACLU will be changing its regulations to accommodate conjugal visits by homosexuals. In an article from the San Francisco Chronicle, Gays and lesbians allowed conjugal visits in prisons, http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/06/01/MNGVOQ5TTI1.DTL “the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has begun to allow overnight visits for inmates with registered domestic partners and is to adopt permanent regulations later this year.”
Biblical Family Advocates Director (BFA) Phil Magnan responded to the article saying, “The State of California is continuing to tear down the fabric of godly marriage by encouraging and recognizing domestic partners whose lifestyles are immoral. Domestic partner legislation is unconscionable and dishonors the marriage bed that is intended for heterosexuals alone. They should not be rewarded with such marital benefits when God forbids such unions.”
Magnan continued, “Though visits by family or friends can be helpful, encouraging immoral behavior is not the road to recovery. Repentance and spiritual transformation through Christ are far more beneficial to prepare an inmate to be released into society. If the Department of Corrections is truly committed to rehabilitation, they should reconsider the gravity of sponsoring immorality under their care. Of course, one can only pity the Corrections Department having to submit to such immoral laws as domestic partners legislation.”
Biblical Family Advocates is also concerned about the potential for lawsuits against the State of California for allowing a potentially high risk person to have sexual relations with an inmate under their protection. BFA wonders if the State of California will be held harmless for allowing one of their inmates to contract sexually transmitted diseases like HIV or for allowing one of their inmates to infect someone outside of the prison population. BFA also wonders who will pay for such care created by facilitating reckless behavior. Once again, it appears that the tax payer will be burdened with the high cost of State sponsored immorality.