A few weeks ago, IGF contributing author Andrew Sullivan wrote
this
piece
for the Wall Street Journal, taking conservatives to task for
opposing gay participation in our society's "integrating"
institutions, such as marriage, the military, etc. Among other
questions, he asked:
On what grounds do conservatives believe that discouraging responsibility is a good thing for one group in society? What other legal minority do they or would they treat this way?
Last week, conservative David Frum
responded, also in the Wall Street Journal.
You can read Frum's arguments for yourself but basically, as
Sullivan and others have accurately noted, it is a nonresponse -
conservatives of Frum's sort are fundamentally opposed not just to
gay marriage, but to any form of domestic partnership recognition.
They have nothing positive to say about integrating gay people more
fully into society, because they would rather keep us permanently
beyond the pale.
But you can't whistle down the wind, and the more the social right digs in its heels against changes that expand individual liberty (rather than focusing constructively on the many left-wing nostrums that expand intrusive government and constrict individual liberty), the more marginalized the social right will become.
Sullivan, by the way, also has an
excellent op-ed in Sunday's New York Times about the Catholic
Church's ongoing attacks against gay Catholics.
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