Gay marriage is the law, but what do we teach our children?

Gay marriage.
(Image credit: Illustrated | iStock)

The gay rights debates of the 1990s and early 2000s ended with a whimper. Less than a decade after "values voters" were said to have swung the White House to George W. Bush for a second term over their opposition to same-sex marriage, and just five years after the last Democratic presidential nominee had to at least pretend to believe that marriage is between one man and one woman, the Supreme Court ruled handed down Obergefell v. Hodges.

Unlike Roe v. Wade with abortion, the Supreme Court decision that established a constitutional right to gay marriage did not touch off a lasting debate. There is no serious talk of overturning it, either by legal challenge or constitutional amendment. Last year, public support for same-sex marriage broke 70 percent. In 1996, it was just 27 percent in the same poll.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
W. James Antle III

W. James Antle III is the politics editor of the Washington Examiner, the former editor of The American Conservative, and author of Devouring Freedom: Can Big Government Ever Be Stopped?.