CONTINUING CONVERSATION ON BLANKENHORN/RAUCH EDITORIAL

(and please do send me more links if you have 'em)

Barry Deutsch:

...But the compromise doesn’t cede the word “marriage.” Blankenhorn and Rauch aren’t trying to end debate over the word “marriage.” What the B/R compromise (as I shall now call it) attempts to do is put aside two sub-debates associated with marriage, while leaving the primary debate — over formal marriage equality — untouched and ongoing.

I think marriage equality proponents should take this deal, if it becomes a real legislative possibility.

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Jonathan Rauch on the Andersen/Girgis counterproposal:

...So we'd go from today's world, where one side demands full marriage rights and the other side rejects even minimal recognition of gay couples, to a world where same-sex couples got federal civil unions—which they'd have to share with a few nuns and aging sisters—but gays agreed not to ask for more. States, presumably, could continue to tussle over gay marriage, but the federal debate would be over.

There's much to think about here, but one practical question strikes me as a likely show-stopper: How could any agreement not to pursue changes in DOMA bind future activists and politicians? A gentlemen's agreement wouldn't be enforceable, and a constitutional amendment would be both difficult as a political matter and unacceptable to SSM advocates, who will see it as writing inequality into the Constitution—the nuclear option, from our point of view.

That's just a first-blush reaction, though. I think the most important thing about Anderson-Girgis is its willingness to reach out and try to do something for same-sex couples, as well as something to ameliorate the culture wars. It should be received by SSM advocates as a good-faith gesture, and it deserves to be broadly and respectfully discussed. And it's another sign that maybe, just maybe, the ice is beginning to thaw around the frozen gay-marriage debate.

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Labels: civil unions, David Blankenhorn, gay marriage, Jonathan Rauch, religious liberty, Ryan T. Anderson, Sherif Girgis

posted by Eve at 2:00 PM VOTE

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