A Conservative Argument Against Same Sex Marriage

As a believer in traditional marriage, the idea of same sex marriage is anathema to me. This article is an interesting discussion of the history and rational and the alternative that Washington State has enacted by vote of its citizens.

Excerpt: And although different cultures have at times embraced and acknowledged homosexual relationships, especially in the Classical world, there has never been any suggestion that those relationships can or should be a “marriage.”

Tradition does not make justice and majority opinion should not decide minority rights. Without a doubt, much of the opposition to gay marriage springs from unreasonable and ignorant bias. But by demanding the complete redefinition of the core social institution of our culture, those who insist on same sex marriage as the only acceptable form of recognition for same sex relationships are creating unnecessary and even reluctant opponents. A politically crucial component of the public’s concern about same sex marriage is their well-justified discomfort with social engineering.

Government can and always has regulated the terms of marriage, but its basic definition did not originate in a statute. Legislatures did not create marriage out of their imaginations. Marriage has been a heterosexual institution throughout history. Attempting to modify it in such a radical way stretches the bounds of government power beyond previously understood limits and calls into question any notion of limited government power. Read it here.