Gay marriage: A conservative cause?

“I’ve been married for 29 years,” said Jon Huntsman in The American Conservative, and “my marriage has been the greatest joy of my life.” To me, there is “nothing conservative” about denying same-sex couples that same right. That’s why I, along with at least 74 other Republicans, signed a legal brief this week urging the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down Proposition 8—the California ballot initiative barring gay marriage. Our reasoning is simple. Marriage equality is a conservative cause: It promotes individual freedom, and “the party of Lincoln” should stand by this fundamental right to equality. Not only is it fair, said the Chicago Tribune in an editorial, but it’s also “smart politics.” Just look at the facts: The majority of Americans now favor gay marriage, and in the recent election all ballot initiatives supporting same-sex marriage passed while all those against failed. “Public opinion is shifting with remarkable speed,” and Republicans should get on the right side of history.

Liberal Republicans like to “wrap their agendas in electability,” said Daniel Greenfield in FrontPageMag.com. But in reality, they’re just promoting the “thoroughly unoriginal and discredited” theory that the GOP can only stay competitive if it merges its free market ideals with social liberalism. Well, they’re wrong. Marriage has been defined as the union of a man and a woman since antiquity, and it’s hardly conservative to change that definition. Nor is it conservative to use government to “enforce” secular moral values on people, at the expense of their individual liberty and religious freedom.

Traditionalists might not have a choice in the matter, said Peter Beinart in TheDailyBeast.com. If the GOP refuses to embrace gay marriage, it will face an unavoidable and catastrophic “generational disconnect.” About 70 percent of voters under 30 support gay marriage, and will view the GOP as “out of touch” and “hateful” as long as it clings to homophobia. To escape irrelevance, Republicans should welcome the stability provided by same-sex couples in committed monogamous relationships, and recognize that the real threat to traditional values comes from “the breakdown of marriage among straight Americans, especially poor, straight Americans.” The sooner the Republican Party accepts gay marriage as another chapter in America’s long struggle for civil rights, “the faster it will make itself nationally competitive again.”

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