A Mormon federal judge appointed by President George W. Bush this week upheld Nevada’s ban on same sex marriage.

Judge Robert Jones ruled that gay men and lesbians did not qualify for protections under the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause because recent victories in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington proved that LGBT people did not face the same level of discrimination as other groups did.

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“It simply cannot be seriously maintained, in light of these and other recent democratic victories, that homosexuals do not have the ability to protect themselves from discrimination through democratic processes such that extraordinary protection from majoritarian processes is appropriate,” he wrote.

Jones also contended that the state had an interest in “maintenance of the traditional institution of civil marriage as between one man and one woman” because heterosexual couples could produce offspring.

Human beings are created through the conjugation of one man and one woman. The percentage of human beings conceived through non-traditional methods is minuscule and adoption, the form of child-rearing in which same-sex couples may typically participate together, is not an alternative means of creating children, but rather a social backstop for when traditional biological families fail. The perpetuation of the human race depends upon traditional procreation between men and women. The institution developed in our society, its predecessor societies, and by nearly all societies on Earth throughout history to solidify, standardize, and legalize the relationship between a man, a woman, and their offspring, is civil marriage between one man and one woman.

In his ruling, Jones warned that marriage rights for LGBT people could lead to “an increased percentage of out-of-wedlock children, single-parent families, difficulties in property disputes after the dissolution of what amount to common law marriages in a state where such marriages are not recognized, or other unforeseen consequences.”

The civil rights organization Lambda Legal, which brought the case before the court, has vowed to appeal the ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

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“We will appeal and continue to fight for these loving couples, who are harmed by Nevada’s law barring marriage for same-sex couples. By forbidding same-sex couples’ access to marriage, the State brands them and their children as second-class citizens,” lead attorney Tara Borelli said in a statement.

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