Transcript
JONATHAN RAUCH: Now if you think about it, this is a peculiar thing. The decision over same-sex marriage is, perhaps, the most important decision facing marriage that we're going to make in some time in this country and, indeed, six weeks from now, the State of Massachusetts will, in all probability begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. So, it is a bit late in the day for our A-team on family policy to begin thinking about it, but they have, at last. And that's a very good thing. And it's particularly good to welcome people of this caliber into the debate.
The reason that family policy thinkers have tended not to delve into same-sex marriage has been that the debate has been presented on the left as a civil rights debate, equal rights. And on the right, as a morals debate, as a referendum on homosexuality.
And, of course, it is both of those things. But same-sex marriage is much more than that because above and beyond either of those things, it is fundamentally a question about how we make policy in the interest of American families.
So the question that faces us is: What are the implications of same-sex marriage on family policy? I'll restrict myself today to that particular question, leave civil rights and morality and so forth aside.
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