Media pundits aren't the only ones who object to gay marriage on reproductive grounds. "I'm against it for Darwinian reasons," says Shane Huber, a chemist who lives in Orange. Marriage was founded to propagate the species, he says, and that meant certain practices, such as marrying a parent, sibling or person of the same sex, became taboo.
"People who argue that marriage is no longer just about reproduction are missing the point, because marriage as an institution is exactly about reproduction," he says. "Gay people should have all the legal rights that married people have, but you can do that without bestowing marriage on them."
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"Republicans oppose gay marriage because it threatens or mocks ... the 'sanctity of marriage,' as if anything you can do drunk out of your mind in front of an Elvis impersonator in Las Vegas could be considered sacred."
-- Bill Maher
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Defending traditional matrimony can be a challenge. "This topic has not been treated in a fair and balanced way by the media," says Peter Bronson, a conservative Cincinnati Enquirer columnist who opposes gay marriage. Part of the problem, he says, is the emotional effect of television, in which "one person with a tear rolling down their cheek" can trump weeks of congressional testimony and logic.
Bronson says he cringes when he sees coverage of gay marriage. "It's always the same story. There's a photo of a loving, caring, monogamous lesbian couple, raising adopted orphans. 'We only want the rights given to everyone else,' they plead," he recently wrote. "In our Oprah-fied culture, blubbery emotion must be fed. So the definition of marriage that has outlasted the Great Pyramids and crosses more cultural, geographic, religious and ethnic boundaries than the Great Wall of China is crumbling under the slow drip of 'I want.' "
It doesn't help that heterosexuals have made a mess of the institution. As gay-rights supporters are happy to point out, the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act was sponsored by Rep. Bob Barr (who's had three marriages) and Sen. Bob Dole (two marriages), then signed into law by President Clinton, another poster boy for wedded bliss.
"The irony is that gays want so badly what they seem to find so flawed," writes Orlando Sentinel columnist Parker.
In truth, many gays are ambivalent about the idea of same-sex nuptials, and, until recently, a number of activists adamantly opposed the concept.
