Fish in a barrel

I wasn't going to post on this because I thought it was just too stupid to waste pixels on. However, the more I think about it, the more I think that maybe I'm missing something. Can anyone explain this?

A series of bills in the Legislature are setting a dangerous precedent for the legalization of same-sex marriage, presenters from the Sutherland Institute argued Thursday night.
"We are being urged today to surrender and redefine marriage," said LaVar Christensen. "If we are true to our heritage, we will not yield."

The bills are in question are collectively referred to as the Common Ground Initiative, and they include bills designed to protect gays and lesbians from housing and employment discrimination, to secure domestic partner benefits for state employees, to legally recognize a "joint support declaration" that would secure probate rights for unmarried domestic partners, and to clarify Amendment 3, which outlawed same-sex marriage for Utah in 2005, to allow for some of these benefits to comport with the Utah Constitution. If anyone can tell me what this has to do with same-sex marriage, I would much appreciate it.

I would love to take LeVar Christensen at face value when he says that he and his compatriots "have the utmost empathy and sincere compassion for all human beings," but doing so would require that I understand how these bills have anything to do with the marriage debate. Without that link, I would have to assume that he opposes the bills on their own terms, and that he and the Sutherland Institute support firing people or denying them housing because of their sexual orientation. If that's what he means, I wish he'd just say it.