HARVARD HOSTS SSM DEBATE: From Bay Windows

During a Harvard-sponsored debate March 15 on same-sex marriage, Harvard law professor Janet Halley accused her fellow panelist Maggie Gallagher and others who advance the argument against same-sex marriage of appealing to fascist impulses. Despite this, however, the bulk of the impassioned debate remained civil.

The odds were stacked against Gallagher going into the debate. The other two panelists, Halley and Diana Eck, a professor of comparative religion and Indian studies, were openly gay, and all of the audience members who asked questions of the panelists favored same-sex marriage. Yet each of the three panelists brought a vastly different perspective to the marriage debate.

Gallagher, a syndicated columnist and author of several books on marriage, argued that marriage should remain a heterosexual institution under the law because it bound children to their biological mothers and fathers. Although she conceded that there had been no conclusive research on children raised by same-sex couples, she said research into all other family compositions shows that children do best in a family with their married biological parents in a household without major conflicts between the parents. (Gallagher's knowledge of the research into same-sex parenting is a bit incomplete. In Nov. 2004 the Society for Research and Child Development published a study showing that adolescents raised by lesbian couples are as healthy and well-adjusted as their peers raised by heterosexual couples.) ...

Halley argued that in the push for marriage rights GLBT advocates have described marriage too readily as a system of rights and benefits, sidestepping many of the restrictive and punitive aspects of marriage that occur when couples file for divorce. She said from a legal point of view, spouses in the divorce process are pitted against each other as adversaries under the law.

"The gay rights organizations are going to need a policy on which spouse to side with against each spouse," said Halley.

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posted by Eve at 4:46 PM VOTE

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