Paul Caprio

Last month, anti-gay groups in Illinois formed the Coalition to Protect Children and Marriage to oppose impending legislation to legalize same-sex marriage in the state. Coalition leader Paul Caprio of Family-PAC spoke to Sandy Rios today and warned that the gay rights bill will cause more children to go into foster care and seek state assistance. He even pointed to the city of Chicago’s murder rate as a reason to oppose marriage equality.

Listen: 

We think it’s important that we block this in the state of Illinois. We know that there have been several referendums recently in other more progressive states, frankly more liberal states, where this has passed by narrow margins, but we feel that it’s very important to stand up. You know, it’s interesting, when you stop to think about it what should the interest of the state be relative to the issue of marriage? The state, more than anyone, should be looking at marriage in terms of protection of children if for no other reason that if children are not protected, and children need foster care or they need DCF [Department for Children and Families] assistance, it costs the state so much more money. Just looking at it from the point of view from the state, not the point of view that we look at things from, including the moral perspective of this issue, but it’s really interesting when you stop to think about it. Chicago, it was announced yesterday, is murder capital of the United States: 506 murders. We have the second highest unwed—or children out of wedlock birth rate, of any major city in the United States, right behind Detroit. All of these things are for reasons and one of the major reasons is the breakdown and the lack of a stable family for children.