And the institution of marriage has been so denigrated in practice that its covenants and unique legal status are easily questioned by justices and gay rights advocates. Adultery is a private life issue we were unwilling to condemn even in presidents. Marriage to many is little more than a designer dress, gifts and a few years' commitment. That we have not lived up to the commitments and purposes of heterosexual marriage even the most primitive societies recognize as being anthropologically necessary for self-preservation does not justify its judicial elimination. How quickly utilitarian Marxists abandon principle and become freedom fighters on this one.
Children are the vested interest.
The work of Barbara Dafoe Whitehead documents without equivocation the damage to children raised otherwise. Unless heterosexual marriage retains its exclusive status and is honored by its participants' commitment, the hope of raising children who don't pack the emotional stability of a WWF regular as well as an Uzi by junior high wanes. Just the logistics of failed marriage are indicative of its unique role. Deadbeat fathers are divorced fathers. Single mothers are generally in poverty because they abandoned their vows or never took them in the first place.