Marriage Quote by Randy Neugebauer

A single sentence that tries to do three jobs at once: sound procedural, sound moral, and sound inevitable. “Mr. Speaker” plants the line inside the formal theater of Congress, where invoking decorum doubles as a claim to legitimacy. “I rise today” isn’t just physical description; it’s a ritual phrase that frames the speaker as dutiful rather than combative, even as the content is a culture-war stake in the ground.

The real move is in “in support of the definition.” That word choice pretends the fight is about neutral taxonomy, not power. Definitions feel tidy, even scientific; they imply there’s an original, correct meaning that politics merely restores. It’s a classic rhetorical dodge: launder a contested social boundary into a matter of common sense. By the time you reach “as between one man and one woman,” the sentence has already attempted to pre-empt debate by treating exclusion as preservation.

Neugebauer’s intent is not only to argue for heterosexual marriage but to narrow the terms of public argument: if marriage is a “definition,” then people seeking same-sex marriage aren’t asking for equal access; they’re allegedly trying to rewrite reality. The subtext is anxious and strategic, coming from an era when legalization momentum was shifting and conservatives sought federal or constitutional backstops. It’s also coalition language: plain, repeatable, calibrated for soundbites, built to reassure social conservatives that the speaker is on their side without ever naming LGBTQ people directly. The absence is the point; it makes the boundary feel impersonal.