Wednesday, July 14, 2004

An Anti-Family Amendment Fails:

Let’s be straight: The now failed FMA was fundamentally an anti-family amendment—one that insulted all gay families as well as every straight family containing an actual gay family member. Even straight families with no gay family members should likewise be insulted by the notion that gay couples getting married threaten their families in any way.

And be sure to check out this op-ed by libertarian god Richard Epstein. Up until now (the article is only a few days old) this op-ed was only available via the Wall Street Journal’s pay site. I’m glad it’s accessible on this free site as well. Epstein tackles the question of whether gay-marriage threatens hetero-marriage:

When President Bush, for example, talks about the need to "protect" the sanctity of marriage, his plea is a giant non sequitur because he does not explain what, precisely, he is protecting marriage against. No proponent of gay marriage wants to ban traditional marriage, or to burden couples who want to marry with endless tests, taxes and delays. All gay-marriage advocates want to do is to enjoy the same rights of association that are held by other people. Let the state argue that gay marriages are a health risk, and the answer is that anything that encourages monogamy has the opposite effect. Any principled burden of justification for the ban is not met.

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