Just 15 years ago, virtually no legal recognition existed for any kind of homosexual relationship. People thought lesbians and gay men lived alone. Now the possibility of same-sex marriages, with all its ramifications, is being aired in a national forum, spurred by a Hawaii court case. Republicans in Congress are fearful that if Hawaii allows men to marry men and women to marry women, then other states will be forced to accept these unions. But the legislation raises constitutional questions and, like the abortion issue, invokes concerns about individual privacy and public morality.
Sponsors say they want to preserve heterosexual values and traditional families.
Opponents counter that the measure is mean-spirited and discriminatory. The divisiveness is exacerbated by the politics of the upcoming November elections. Hawaii has come the closest of any state to allowing same-sex marriages. That is a very difficult standard and one that will be tested in a trial scheduled to begin this month. That change would drastically alter the nature and character, indeed the very definition of, the most important institution of human civilization, the family.