The intellectual face of anti-gay bigotry

Why Harry Jaffa's objections to gay sex hold no merit

(Image credit: (George Frey/Getty Images))

The fight over same-sex marriage raises many polarizing issues and provokes passionate denunciations on all sides. Among the most common is the claim by those who support gay marriage that all those who oppose it, no matter their reasons, are motivated by anti-gay bigotry.

I've rejected that argument on numerous occasions. One may hold for religious or other reasons, and without denigrating men and women who experience and act on homosexual desires, that marriage is an institution properly oriented toward procreation and therefore permanently closed to homosexual couples. This isn't my view; I strongly support gay marriage. But those who take a different position aren't moral monsters worthy of condemnation. They are fellow citizens attempting to uphold a traditional view of the family and its social purposes that is no longer universally affirmed, but is still perfectly legitimate.

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Damon Linker

Damon Linker is a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also a former contributing editor at The New Republic and the author of The Theocons and The Religious Test.