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.