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By Rosemary Pollock
LDS Lawmaker Seeks To Define 'Natural Family'
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH -- The "Definition of Natural Family" is one of
the many bills that remains slated for action during the 2001
legislative session. Senate Majority Leader-elect L. Steven Poulton
will attempt to write into state law a bill that will define the
family. He has declined to say what form the bill could take before
the January 15 legislative date.
"If what we are doing is protecting the historical structure of
families from political efforts to destroy them, then I'm going to
support that kind of legislation," said Houlton, a Holladay
Republican. "But I'm not going to say what a natural family is
without having a discussion with [Alonzo Hinckley]." Alonzo A.
Hinckley is Poulton's former Stake President and second cousin to LDS
Church President Gordon B. Hinckley.
"Without concepts it's really shooting in the dark to say what could
happen, and my opinions are not something I'm going to try to force
onto the Legislature," Poulton said.
Sen. Ed Mayne, D-West Valley City said, "None of us should be
surprised about some of the bills coming out, or what's behind them."
The most likely genesis of Poulton's bill is a resolution passed by
members of 1999 World Congress, an even co-sponsored by Brigham Young
University and the Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society.
World Congress members adopted a resolution that "the natural family
is a man and woman bound in a lifelong covenant of marriage for the
purposes of: the continuation of the human species, the rearing of
children, the regulation of sexuality, the provision of mutual
support and protection, the creation of an altruisitic domestic
economy and the maintenance of bonds between the generations."
Poulton's "Natural Family" bill is not the first time his political
actions have been colored by religious associations. In 1999,
Poulton, while running an insurance agency, pushed a bill affecting
the Utah Technology Finance Corporation (UTFC).
Source:
Lawmaker Wants A Legislation on 'Natural Family'
Salt Lake Tribune 20Dec00 T2
By Greg Burton: Salt Lake Tribune
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