The establishment of same-sex marriage would create a class of children for whom these failures would have direct consequences. However it must be noted that if a move to create an entire class of permanently fatherless or motherless children were not attached to the issue of homosexual marriage, it is doubtful there would be a controversy, so overwhelming is the evidence of detrimental effect. Before there was government, there were couples of one man and one woman who made a lifelong commitment to live together and raise children. The institution of marriage in its current form has been protected in Western law for centuries. It is a part of our social and legal inheritance we should be most hesitant to alter.
Petitioners argue that their studies found no harm to children living in same-sex marriages.