'Natural family' resolution is called 'exclusionary'

A "natural family" resolution pushed by a local think-tank is narrow, one-sided and a proposal that is "insensitive, inhumane and exclusionary," a Salt Lake County councilwoman said Wednesday.

Jenny Wilson, a Democrat and the lone woman on the nine-member council, penned a letter to Sutherland Institute president Paul Mero Wednesday, calling his resolution on the family "dangerous to a government founded 'of the people, by the people and for the people.' "

The Sutherland Institute recently sent a letter to local municipalities urging them to support a resolution that includes the phrase "upholding the marriage of a woman to a man, and a man to a woman as ordained by God." The resolution, approved in Kanab in January, goes on to encourage homes to be open to a "full quiver of children" and young women to become "wives, homemakers and mothers."

"At a certain level, I find this document amusing, but mainly it is unnecessarily insensitive, inhumane and exclusionary," Wilson wrote.

Wilson took issues with several points in the Sutherland Institute's resolution.

• Promoting a "full quiver of children" ignores population problems around the globe and in Salt Lake County, Wilson said.

• The resolution is exclusionary, as the institute's "natural family" omits single adults, homosexuals and small families, she said. Local government leaders should not support policies for one group while ignoring the other.

"It seems that the Sutherland Institute is promoting a 'people' that comprises an extremely narrow segment of our society and our state," Wilson wrote. "It is mean-spirited towards those who, either by their own choosing, or by circumstances beyond their control, find themselves outside your definition."

Wilson said elected officials have an obligation to support a quality of life for everyone, no matter race, gender or sexual orientation. A healthy debate about the resolution might do some good in local government. "However, I have confidence that my fellow elected officials, regardless of their political persuasion, would recognize that endorsing this proposal would be a gross disservice to the people of our county."

---

E-mail: ldethman@desnews.com