Welcome!

Massachusetts United Families is an organization dedicated to defending and promoting marriage and the family in Massachusetts. We are the state affiliate of United Families International.

Action Alert!!!

Governor Mitt Romney has filed emergency legislation requesting the power to appoint a special counsel that would ask the state’s highest court (the Supreme Judicial Court) to delay the start of same-sex marriages scheduled for May 17. The issue of whether to appoint a special counsel is now being decided by the Senate and House Judiciary Committees. If approved by the Judiciary Committees, it will then be decided by the Massachusetts State Legislature.

This is probably the last opportunity to prevent same-sex marriages from taking place in Massachusetts starting May 17. A decision by the legislature not to allow the Governor to request a delay in these same-sex marriages effectively nullifies the vote on the constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman, which was approved by the Massachusetts Legislature in March.

Before the completion of the amendment process in 2006, many same-sex marriages already will have taken place and nullifying these marriages could be legally and politically difficult because benefits will already have been granted. The Supreme Judicial Court should have the opportunity to consider the changed circumstances raised by the pending amendment.

What is at stake is not just the future of traditional marriage and the family in the Commonwealth. In a very real sense, what we do here in the coming few weeks will profoundly affect the future of marriage and the family in our entire nation. (Click here for a more detailed discussion of what is at stake here, both for the family and for our system of government.)

This is the time. This is the issue. And this is the place where we must draw the line.

Listed below are several suggestions of what you can do to help, including signing our petition to the legislature to defend marriage and the family.

We urge you to join us in this vital effort!

What you can do?

Step One: Contact your state representative and state senator immediately

Express your support for Governor Romney and the appointment of a special counsel to request a delay to the start of same-sex marriages until the people of Massachusetts have an opportunity to vote on the amendment defining marriage as only the union of a man and a woman.

You can easily find out contact information for your state representative and state senator through our site.

Call your elected representatives…

The most effective and immediate way to contact them is to talk to them personally or at least leave them a voice message. We provide the contact information for your representative and senator and some suggested talking points you can use. You can also refer to our sample letter for good talking points.

Click here to get contact information

E-mail them…

A simple and fast way (though, unfortunately not the most effective since elected officials are often inundated with e-mails) to contact them is by e-mail. We provide a suggested text for your e-mail that you can modify as you wish and then send it with a simple click of your mouse. (If you are not sure who your representative and senator is, you can simply enter your zip code and our database will determine it for you. Click on the email link below.)

Click here to send an e-mail

Send them a letter…

Another way to make your views known is to send them a letter (but do this quickly because time is running out). We provide a sample letter for you that you can modify, print out and send in. After you enter your address in the boxes provided, the letter you print out will be correctly addressed to your representative and senator and will include your return address so that they know it is coming from one of their constituents. (Click on the letter link below.)

Click here to send a letter

Ask them to answer a questionnaire about where they stand on defending marriage…

We have also prepared a questionnaire for constituents to send to their representative and senator asking them specific questions about where they stand on defending marriage and the family and whether they are willing to defend our democratic system by standing up to activist judges. Again, we provide a suggested cover letter that you can print out and mail along with this questionnaire. (Click on the questionnaire link below.)

Click here to send them the questionnaire

Step Two: Sign the United States Petition to Defend Marriage

Another way you can show your support for marriage and the family is to sign the National Petition to Defend Marriage, which urges the United States Congress to pass a constitutional amendment limiting marriage to the union of one man and one woman. Even though a solid majority of Americans oppose same sex marriage, unless we do something, activist judges will certainly impose same sex marriage on us. The only certain way to prevent this from happening is to amend the Constitution to define once and for all that marriage in the United States is the union of a man and a woman.

Step Three: Spread the word

It is vital that as many of us as possible show our strong support for traditional marriage. Spreading the word about this site so that others can visit and also sign the petition and easily contact their elected representatives will be critical to our success.

We offer two convenient ways for you to help spread the word.

1. The simplest way is to forward on to others the confirming e-mail you will receive after you sign the defend marriage petition. It is specifically designed to be sent on to others and includes a link back to this site.

2. A second easy way is to simply enter in the boxes below the e-mail addresses of others who you think would be interested in signing the petition. When you hit the "Send" button they will receive an e-mail invitation from you containing the suggested text in the message box. You can also modify this text in any way you wish.

Thanks for whatever you can do to help in this
critical effort to defend marriage in Massachusetts!