In an article published today in the New York Times, Sandy Rios, president of Concerned Women for America, said, “If the court is allowed to get away with these decisions with no accountability, it is the beginning of the crumbling of our democracy.”

What on earth could this court have done? What incredible ruling threatens the very fabric of our great republic?

Gay marriage, of course.

Wednesday, the Massachusetts’ Supreme Judicial Court decided gays are constitutionally permitted to marry under their state law. In Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, the 4-3 majority wrote, “The very nature and purpose of civil marriage … renders unconstitutional any attempt to ban all same-sex couples, as same-sex couples, from entering into civil marriage.”

President Bush promptly issued a statement denouncing the ruling. He said, among other things, “Marriage is a sacred institution between a man and a woman. If activist judges insist on re-defining marriage by court order, the only alternative will be the constitutional process. We must do what is legally necessary to defend the sanctity of marriage.”

My feeling on this issue can be summed up in one question: What is going on in this country?

Marriage is, by any account, one of the fundamental building blocks of society and civilization. In the same ruling, the court wrote, “The traditional, historic nature and meaning of civil marriage in Massachusetts is as a wholly secular and dynamic legal institution, the governmental aim of which is to encourage stable adult relationships for the good of the individual and of the community.”

Thus, the government should play an integral role in encouraging such loving relationships for the benefit of our future. And the government does so by granting special rights to married couples like inheritance privileges, Social Security payments to spouses or children of the deceased, and joint filing of taxes, just to name a few.

Yet, here in the United States, the social conservatives who currently rule the federal and state government run around scared of this decision, screaming “The sky is falling! The sky is falling! Homosexuals will get married! Pass an amendment to the state constitution! Pass an amendment to the federal constitution! We must protect our democracy! Our society will be ruined!”

But why? Homosexual couples are just as loving and caring for each other as their heterosexual counterparts. They abide by the law, pay taxes, vote, and by any objective account, live as responsible citizens.

So it raises the question why Dubya, state Assembly Speaker John Gard, state Senate Majority Leader Mary Panzer, and just about every Republican in the country is now sure to scream bloody murder at the sight of a gay couple holding hands as they walk out of the office of a Massachusetts justice of the peace.

Isn’t their entire argument based upon prejudice? They seem to believe that no homosexual couple can contribute positively to the fabric of society (read: marriage) because they are homosexual.

Perhaps they take this position for religious reasons or moral reasons. But let me generously grant to them that their argument is based on a respect for all religions and moral attitudes, so long as the acts are congruent to the law. (The last time I checked, a homosexual act is legal.) After all, we live in a world where you are either with us or against us. And religious fanatics are certainly against us.

So I will assume that Bush and his socially conservative pals are basing their cries on something other than morality or religion. But even with this concession, their argument is totally irrational. Gays and gay couples do absolutely nothing to damage society simply because they happen to be gay, just like minorities do absolutely nothing to damage society simply because they happen to be minorities.

That’s right. This fight is for the civil rights of homosexuals. And it is a totally just one.

The government has no business giving privileges to one person over another simply because of what one does in his or her bedroom. What homosexuals do doesn’t hurt anyone. It won’t make anyone blind. American spines won’t grow crooked. The country won’t lose the war. Married homosexual couples will contribute to society through the same objective standard applied to heterosexual couples — through a loving, stable adult relationship that benefits individuals and society.

I am proud of this country and the philosophy of representation and equality on which it is based. But as I watch conservatives begin their war in favor of state and federal constitutional amendments banning gay marriage, I will ask myself just one thing: What are they so afraid of?

Paul Temple ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in political science and philosophy.