Honest Liberality

“I’m a liberal Democrat. And I do not favor same-sex marriage. Do those positions sound contradictory? To me, they fit together.”

So writes David Blankenhorn, author of The Future of Marriage , in a recent LA Times editorial. The legalization of same-sex marriage, he writes, is not an easy case of good versus evil, but one of competing goods: the reduction of homophobia and the protection of every child’s birthright to a loving, stable family. Which wins out?

For Blankenhorn, the truly liberal response—aimed at societal flourishing and the protection of human rights—must be honest about our past to be honest about our future:

Many seem to believe that marriage is simply a private love relationship between two people. They accept this view, in part, because Americans have increasingly emphasized and come to value the intimate, emotional side of marriage, and in part because almost all opinion leaders today, from journalists to judges, strongly embrace this position. That’s certainly the idea that underpinned the California Supreme Court’s legalization of same-sex marriage. But I spent a year studying the history and anthropology of marriage, and I’ve come to a different conclusion.

Read the rest of Blankenhorn’s case here .