There is no rational basis for banning gay marriage.

As noted earlier, this debate is about whether bans on gay marriage pass rational basis review. Con is right that rational basis is a "permissive" standard, but that doesn't mean it's toothless. For equal protection cases (and this is an equal protection case), the Supreme Court has said the standard is whether there is a rational connection between the exclusion created by the challenged legislation and the governmental interests the legislation purportedly advances. [1] So to win this debate, Con must show how excluding gays from marriage has a rational connection to a legitimate government interest. Con plans to argue the "responsible procreation" justification so I'll start there.1. Encouraging "responsible procreation" is not a rational justification.To win on "responsible procreation," Con will need to explain how bans on gay marriage promote responsible procreation. That burden cannot be met for two reasons: (1) excluding gay couples from marriage doesn't increase the quantity of "responsible procreation," and (2) straight couples who can't or don't want to procreate are still allowed to get married.First, straight couples won't procreate more just because gay couples can't get married. No straight couple decides to have a child, or to get married, because gay couples can't get married. The incentives to get married are the same whether gays are excluded from marriage or not. So the number of straight couples who procreate, and the number of straight couples who get married, isn't going to change based on whether gays are excluded from marriage.Second, straight couples who can't or don't want to procreate are still allowed to marry. Millions of men and women in the United States today are incapable of having children as a result of infertility. Yet each of these men or women could still marry a different-sex partner if gay marriage were banned. For example, births among women age 50 and over are virtually non-existent. [2] [3] And there are over 53 million women in the United States age 50 and over. [4] But these women could still get married if gay couples were excluded from marriage. If the reason gay couples can't marry is that they can't procreate, then why are straight couples who can't or won't procreate allowed to marry?At its core, the "responsible procreation" justification is incoherent. Excluding gay couples from marriage won't promote responsible procreation because it won't change how many straight couples have children. But what's worse, if we took this "responsible procreation" justification to its logical conclusion, we'd have to exclude infertile straight couples from marriage too (not to mention all the couples who don't want children). Of course, that result is absurd. For these reasons, "responsible procreation" isn't a rational basis for bans on gay marriage.2. Fostering an "optimal" parenting environment is not a rational justification.First, excluding gay couples from marriage doesn't stop them from having children; more than 200,000 children in the United States are raised by gay couples. [5] Nor does excluding gay couples from marriage increase the number of children raised by straight couples. As explained earlier, straight couples don't decide whether to have children based on whether gays can get married. So even if children are better off raised by straight couples, which isn't the case, there is still no rational connection between excluding gay couples from marriage and the purported interest in fostering an "optimal" parenting environment.Second, if marriage creates a better parenting environment for children, there is no reason to exclude children of gay couples. There is nothing special about children raised by straight couples that makes it rational to deny the benefits of marriage to children raised by gay couples. There is simply no explanation -- rational or otherwise -- for denying children of gay couples the benefits of marriage, while giving children of straight couples those benefits. The children of straight couples and gay couples both alike are deserving of the benefits offered by marriage. Finally, the social science suggests that straight couples don't inherently create a better parenting environment than gay couples. The overwhelming scientific consensus, based on decades of peer-reviewed scientific research, shows that children raised by gay couples are just as well-adjusted as those raised by straight couples. Over 150 sociological and psychological studies of children raised by gay couples confirm that. [6] [7] So straight couples don't inherently make better parents than gay couples. And to say otherwise, in the face of this overwhelming scientific consensus, would be absurd.ConclusionNeither the "responsible procreation" nor the "optimal parenting environment" justification is a rational basis for excluding gay couples from marriage. To conclude, I want to take a moment and note that no heterosexuals are harmed by gay marriage. No court in the United States has ever found that a straight couple was harmed by gay marriage. So why ban it? Are there any benefits to banning gay marriage? None that I can think of. Yet bans cause considerable harms, both tangible and psychological, to gay couples and to children raised by gay couples. When these facts are considered together -- (1) the lack of harm to heterosexuals from gay marriage, (2) the lack of benefit to banning gay marriage, and (3) the considerable harms caused by banning gay marriage -- I don't see how bans on gay marriage can possibly pass rational basis review. To quote Richard Posner, the most-cited legal scholar and judge of the 20th century, bans on gay marriage "flunk this undemanding test." [8] ReferencesNOTE: I only cited cases by name; they can be found on google scholar if need be.[1] See Romer v. Evans; FCC v. Beach Communications; Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Center; U. S. Dept. of Agriculture v. Moreno.[2] National Vital Statistics Reports, Births: Final Data for 2012, available at http://www.cdc.gov...[3] American Society For Reproductive Medicine, Age and Fertility: A Guide for Patients, available at https://www.asrm.org...[4] U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2012, Table 7, Resident Population by Sex and Age: 1980 to 2010, available at http://www.census.gov...[5] Gary J. Gates, “LGBT Parenting in the United States," available at http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu...[6] DeBoer v. Snyder, 973 F.Supp.2d 757[7] http://en.wikipedia.org...[8] Baskin v. Bogan, 766 F.3d 648