NEWSWEEK: The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage

[romantico]

I can not stand the man, but agree with hi 100% on this issue. Imagine, Ted Olson is for gay marriage and Barack Obama is not.

From this week's Newsweek, a challenge to American conservatives by Ted Olson, the conservative half of the duo of heterosexual power lawyers taking our case to the Supreme Court.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/229957/page/1

[LeftHander]

1. k&r

[Neecy]

2. K&R

[romantico]

3. (((((bump))))))

n/t

[thereismore]

4. An excerpt:

This procreation argument cannot be taken seriously. We do not inquire whether heterosexual couples intend to bear children, or have the capacity to have children, before we allow them to marry. We permit marriage by the elderly, by prison inmates, and by persons who have no intention of having children. What's more, it is pernicious to think marriage should be limited to heterosexuals because of the state's desire to promote procreation. We would surely not accept as constitutional a ban on marriage if a state were to decide, as China has done, to discourage procreation.

Another argument, vaguer and even less persuasive, is that gay marriage somehow does harm to heterosexual marriage. I have yet to meet anyone who can explain to me what this means. In what way would allowing same-sex partners to marry diminish the marriages of heterosexual couples? Tellingly, when the judge in our case asked our opponent to identify the ways in which same-sex marriage would harm heterosexual marriage, to his credit he answered honestly: he could not think of any.