Gay Marriage

Gavin Newsom became the poster boy for the Prop 8 forces when they successfully passed the anti-gay marriage initiative here in California. They used this clip as part of a commercial that got a lot of media play:



Newsom was giving a campaign speech and it was easy to caricature him, but more and more conservatives are coming to the same conclusions as Gavin. The NY Observer has an interesting article about NY times conservative columnist Ross Douthat.

"He added that the conservative opposition to gay marriage is "a losing argument," and asked rhetorically if committed homosexual relationships ought to be denied the legal recognition accorded without hesitation to the fleeting enthusiasms of Britney Spears and Newt Gingrich.

After the panel, Mr. Douthat told the Observer: "If I were putting money on the future of gay marriage, I would bet on it."

He added: "The secular arguments against gay marriage, when they aren't just based on bigotry or custom, tend to be abstract in ways that don't find purchase in American political discourse. I say, ‘Institutional support for reproduction,' you say, ‘I love my boyfriend and I want to marry him.' Who wins that debate? You win that debate."

Republicans often win arguments on taxes because they successfully cast it as "Do you want to pay lower taxes?" The simple, concise argument is often most effective. In the case of gay marriage, I think there will be a continual erosion of support for preventing homosexuals from marrying. Especially since many of the arguments against gay marriage are similar to the ones against mixed race marriages (it just ain't natural). Of course, some geniuses are still trying to make the argument against mixed race marriage.

As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said: "Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice."