Intellectual Conservatism and Gay Marriage

Here is what I consider to be the intellectual conservative dissection of the gay marriage issue:

Supporting the traditional definition of marriage is neither hateful, bigoted nor ignorant. In fact, the majority (57%) of
Americans, to include Barack Obama, happen to agree that a "marriage" is defined as the union of one man and one
woman. As a bit of perspective for you liberals, Obama only won the 2008 popular vote by 53% - a margin many liberal
publications considered to be a "landslide victory." If Obama won by a "landslide" with just 53% of the vote, what does
that say about gay marriage?

But let us look at this issue pragmatically. The Left needs to make it appear as though Conservatives are filled with hate
for gays - because they'll have an easier time gathering people to their cause if the legality and constitutionality of the
matter stays off the table. Liberals know that the best (if not the only) weapon in their arsenal is their ability to appeal to
pathos.

If not for liberal academia's persistent efforts to drum up euphemisms to favorably and continually reshape the way
issues are debated, liberalism would have been snuffed out decades ago. It's not as if socialism and liberalism haven't
been rejected time and again by the American people - they have! It's just that liberals are quite masterful at repackaging
the same crap and presenting it in such a way that Americans forget why they rejected it in the first place.

This issue with gay marriage is no different. You will be hard-pressed to find a liberal who is willing to debate you on the
substantive legal issues regarding gay marriage. Instead, you'll hear a lot of violin solos about "everyone deserving equal
rights." This, my friends, is the current liberal euphemism for gay marriage. Gay marriage advocates have usurped a
state-funded benefit as a "right," irrespective of the state's will to recognize it as such, and then continue to call it a
"right" in the arguments which follow, even though there is no standing legal precedent which defines marriage as such.

Before I dive into the legal ramifications and precedent of the issue, I want to lay down a disclaimer. I do not use
religious context to frame my political debates. I've no doubt that the founding fathers were religious/ faithful men and
that they never intended for Christianity to be treated in the ways that it is today.

But as a philosophy major, I learned that faith is not and cannot be a justification for any empirical and universal
argument. This is true for either morality or legality. Attributing the source of your reasoning to something the rest of the
population may or may not have faith in is not conducive to creating sound social contracts. Saying "these are inalienable
rights because god gave them to us," and saying "there are inalienable rights because we gave them to ourselves," for the
nonbelieving population, is essentially the same thing. And because the law applies equally to all, its foundation must be
equally applicable to all as well.

I am parting from traditional Conservative dogma when I say this (or at least the explanation outlined in Mark Levin's
Liberty and Tyranny), but our inalienable rights come from neither our own positivism nor God. In America, our
inalienable rights come from the Constitution of the United States. Those rights which are conferred to U.S. citizens are
granted irrespective of that person's religious faith, sexual orientation, gender, race, creed, etc.

Can we say that politicians ought to make every decision without an ounce of moral or religious motivation? Certainly
not. It's quite clear that our subjective decisions are framed by our personal value systems. However, the intellectual
conservative does not believe in legal positivism and has the utmost respect for our Constitution and the founding
principles of our forefathers. The law cannot just be whatever we want it to be in a given circumstance. That would lead
to anarchy and tyranny. Conversely, the law ought not be so immobile as to find itself incapable of adapting to modern
conflicts.

And so the intellectual conservative must balance the legal foundations laid down by our founders, historical context,
legal precedent, and the modern-day empirical knowledge of the issues which face us.

Where does this leave the intellectual conservative on gay marriage?

The intellectual conservative doesn't care what people do in the privacy of their own bedrooms. Conservatives have,
historically, advocated people's right to do what they want (within the law). The best conservative arguments don't
suggest that gays ought to be kept apart, simply that the state is not legally obligated to recognize their union.

There is a huge, insurmountable "rights" gap here that people with a one-dimensional understanding of the gay marriage
issue always fail to grasp. Insofar as a "marriage" is a state-recognized and subsidized status, the people of that state have
the right to define it.

It is vitally necessary, from a legal perspective, to distinguish between a benefit and a right. The government gives
benefits to thousands of groups without also giving them to others. Couples with children, military veterans, the disabled,
the elderly, minorities, etc. all get tax-funded benefits because the people who are funding those benefits have consented
to it (or at least refused to adequately object).

When looking at the gay marriage issue, one has to ponder... what is this really all about? Gays can already have any
relationship they wish, what they're fighting for here is state-recognized status. Why? They can call themselves
"married" until they're blue in the face, why do they need to the state to recognize their union? Because with state-
recognition comes state benefits. And here we find the crux of the issue for the intellectual conservative - the reason the
intellectual conservative wants gay marriage to be decided state-by-state isn't because he has some vehement hatred for
gays, but because he believes that a state's citizens should have the autonomy to decide what they will and will not
subsidize.

"Marriage," as it currently functions in American society, is a state-recognized status which yields state-subsidized
benefits. Therefore, the intellectual conservative correctly asserts that each state must decide for itself whether it will
include gay unions within its classification of "marriage."

But let's follow the gay marriage advocate's arguments to their furthest, logical conclusion. Let's say Perez Hilton decides
that he thinks state-funded marital benefits ought to be granted to all gay couples too. Suddenly, our government no
longer has legal precedent to give a benefit to one person and not another. People with children could no longer get an
additional tax cut over those tax payers without children. People without disabilities would then be guaranteed the same
federal funding as the disabled. Rich students would be guaranteed the same federal college aid as poor students. Why?
Because government-funded benefits would be considered, under legal precedent, as a "right."

What's the result of this? Well, obviously, the most likely result is government bankruptcy. Or, we would end up with
outright socialism, where the government takes 100% of everyone's revenue and then divvies it up equally to everyone.
Sounds super, eh comrade?

The fact of the matter is that all sorts of demographics get benefits that others don't. Can you imagine a rich, white,
Christian male college student protesting that he's not getting the same federally funded "rights" as his poor black peers?
He'd be lambasted!

The simple, conservative solution to the gay marriage issue is to completely separate religious "marriage" from state-
recognized unions. Then let each state's citizens vote on what they will and will not recognize as a "civil union" to
receive tax-funded benefits. Remove government from religious marriage entirely, and redefine all state-recognized
unions as "civil unions," because that's what it means to be a "civil union."

Personally, I think a "marriage" is a union between a man and a woman. That's what the word means; that's what it has
always meant. Not a man and a man. Not a woman and a woman. Not three men and two women. Not a man an ape and
an elephant. Just one man and one woman. That's what the word means, and it would seem the majority of this country
agrees with me (for a change...).

If/when I get to vote on gay marriage again (as I did in 2004 for Georgia in concurrence with 76% of the majority vote) I
will vote against it because I think there are better ways to spend my tax money, and I support the traditional definition
of marriage. But by the same token, an "intellectual conservative" would accept the opposite decision as part of the
democratic process if his state decided to accept same sex unions. That said, this is an issue to be decided by the people,
not the courts.
The suggestion that all anti-gay marriage people are bigots or hateful is inherently false. Liberals need to get over the
assumption that everyone (except them of course) is a bigot. I don't know how it goes over-looked that conservatives are
among the most giving, generous and charitable people on the planet. Yes, there are Christians who feel obligated to
force their beliefs on others, but hating all Christians because of a select minority is no different than hating all gays for
their role in the spread of HIV; it's ignorant.

Liberals want to permanently link all accounts of conservatism to the far religious right because the Left is convinced it
discredits the Right's position. To-date, they're right. I rarely, if ever, hear a conservative talk about gay marriage outside
of a religious context. As a result, liberals are afforded the opportunity to side-step the legal and logical flaws in their
own arguments and speak only to the emotion of the matter. Instead of discussing the usurpation of state-funded marital
benefits, liberals now get to talk about how "radical conservatives are forcing their religious beliefs on others." It's a dog
and pony show, and it completely side-steps the heart of the matter.

Now, I'd like to address another liberal argument: the claim that "gays are being denied equal protection under the law."
If this were the extent of the liberal argument I'd say, in part, they're right. I don't understand the logic behind Don't Ask
Don't Tell, and gays are being discriminated against in several other ways which are neither state-funded nor affect
anyone else but themselves. The intellectual conservative should rail, as President Reagan did for gay teachers, against
this unfair treatment.

But it's important to note the distinction between the "enforcement of a negative" and the "denial of a positive."
Preventing a gay couple's children from visiting them in a hospital is the enforcement of a negative. Kicking
homosexuals out of the military because of their sexual orientation is the enforcement of a negative. Firing gays because
of their sexual orientation (and then denying them equal protection under discrimination laws) is an enforcement of a
negative.

But the liberal does not stop at this conclusion, but takes it a step further to claim, "gays are not being provided equal
protection under the law... because the state refuses to recognize their unions." The state is in no way obligated to
recognize or subsidize their union if the majority of people in that state are not inclined to do so. That's the denial of a
positive. These are two dramatically different things. Which brings us to the next liberal talking point.

Gay marriage advocates love to pretend like their cause is akin to women's suffrage and the civil rights movement. The
stark difference between those movements and the gay marriage movement is that women and minorities were being
denied rights guaranteed them by the Constitution. They were being taxed but denied the right to vote. They were being
taxed but denied equal access to the public services which their tax dollars helped subsidize. They were not being treated
equally or fairly by the judicial system. All of these are instances were a negative impact was being directly enforced on
a discriminatory basis.

By contrast, there are instances where gays are having negatives enforced on them (as I just mentioned). As I said, the
intellectual conservative should rail against these discriminations because they fly in the face of the Constitutional
promise of equal protection under the law. But the Constitutional promise of equality says nothing of state-funded
benefits. These benefits are exactly that, benefits which can be conferred or denied at the will of the people who fund
them. The denial of a positive benefit is not the same as the negation of a right.

There is no instance where the enforcement of a negative on the gay community would necessitate forced state-
recognition of their unions. Each instance of unequal treatment of the gay community can be addressed without
redefining marriage or forced state-recognition. All that is required of the intellectual conservative is that he applies the
constitution accurately. And while there are instances where gays might be getting treated unfairly, and even
unconstitutionally, each of these instances can be solved through proper enforcement of existing law, marriage need not
be redefined.

This of course leads the liberal to the conclusion that the conservative is propagating a "separate but equal" approach.
This is not the case. Homosexuals have exactly the same opportunity to marry as heterosexuals... because marriage is
defined as the union of one man and one woman. Gays aren't being denied their right to marry, and are hence not being
treated with "separate but equal" legislation. Rather, it is the LGBT community which has sought to redefine marriage to
suit its own desires. Marriage is what it is, and what it has always been. If gays want to have a "marriage," they have as
equal an opportunity to do that as anyone else.
Furthermore, to claim that "marriage" is merely a union of two adults in love is a misnomer. If that were the case, every
couple that dates would refer to itself as being "married." This is a ludicrous suggestion and, yet again, just another
feeble attempt to redefine marriage in a way that suits the gay marriage advocate's desires. Because "marriage" is a state-
recognized and subsidized status, the state has the right to define it. Insofar as a state's population does not recognize a
homosexual union as being "married," there can be no justification for the claim of "separate but equal" treatment.

Another argument of liberals is that gays are being denied their "right to pursue happiness." "Pursuing happiness" is not a
right guaranteed by the constitution - that was the Declaration of Independence, which is not law.

If we followed the logic that everyone is guaranteed a "right" to whatever makes them happy, we would have no means
for ever enforcing any law whatsoever. I could decide $1 million dollars makes me happy, rob a bank and say the
government has no right to infringe on my "right to happiness." Thankfully, that's not how our government works.
People aren't guaranteed everything they want in this country. This is the land of opportunity, not the land of guarantees.

Which brings us to the historical and legal precedent relating to the gay marriage issue.

Liberals will sometimes site section 1 of the 14th amendment as a means for defending their argument:
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the
United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the
privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or
property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
I've already explained how the conferral of marital status is not necessary to address the instances where gays are being
treated unequally under the law. So, the last sentence of this clause does not apply. But liberals sometimes contend that
gay marriage cannot be a state issue because, "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges
or immunities of citizens of the United States." Yet marriage is not a universal privilege delineated in federal law. On the
contrary, The Defense of Marriage act, passed in 1996, explicitly contradicts this assertion. This federal law (No. 104-
199, 110 Stat. 2419) had its provisions codified at 1 U.S.C. § 7 and 28 U.S.C. § 1738C. This law has two effects:
1. No state (or other political subdivision within the United States) needs to treat a relationship between persons of the
same sex as a marriage, even if the relationship is considered a marriage in another state.
2. The federal government may not treat same-sex relationships as marriages for any purpose, even if concluded or
recognized by one of the states.
This federal law leaves the definition of marriages up to the states, but says that the federal government will not
recognize (or consequentially subsidize) gay unions as marriages. Both the federal and the state governments recognize
marriages for tax-funded benefits. Therefore, it's within the federal government's authority to say what it will and won't
recognize to receive those federally funded benefits. It would be impractical for the Federal government not to define the
status to which it is issuing benefits.

The next legal reference a liberal frequently makes is one pertaining to the "Full Faith and Credit Clause," which says:
Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other
State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall
be proved, and the Effect thereof.
Advocates argue that this Constitutional clause means that one state is forced to recognize a gay union as "married,"
should that couple have gotten married in another state which recognized gay unions. However, it would appear that
these gay marriage advocates have completely overlooked the second sentence of the clause: "And the Congress may by
general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect
thereof." Meaning, the Defense of Marriage Act, an act of Congress, nullifies the application of the Full Faith and Credit
Clause to the gay marriage issue.

The final Constitutional straw for which liberals grasp in their attempts to justify gay marriage is the 9th amendment:
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the
people.
This clause merely suggests that the people may retain rights, which are not delineated in the Constitution, for
themselves through the democratic process. That's why we have state and local governments. I would also reference the
10th amendment on this matter:
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the
States respectively, or to the people.
Meaning, those powers not explicitly delegated to the federal government by the Constitution are reserved by the state or
local governments.

Upon having his Constitutional arguments shot down, the gay marriage advocate will inevitably turn to his "ace in the
hole:" Loving v. Virginia. In the concluding paragraph of the court's opinion (issued by Chief Justice Warren in 1967),
the Supreme Court of the United States said this:
Marriage is one of the "basic civil rights of man," fundamental to our very existence and survival. To deny this
fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications
so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the
State's citizens of liberty without due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the freedom of choice to
marry not be restricted by invidious racial discriminations. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a
person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State.
Liberals cite that first sentence as a means for justifying their claim that marriage is a right. In all of the precedent ever
issued about marriage, this is the only card gay marriage advocates have to play. And here is why they're wrong... first,
this ruling does not suggest, in any way, that gay unions fall under the protection of the 14th amendment.

The reason this specific case was protected by the 14th amendment is because an interracial couple was married in D.C.
and then had their marriage revoked by the state of Virginia. Virginia sought to actively punish (enforce a negative on)
this interracial couple for breaking Virginia law - which banned interracial marriage.

The gay marriage issue is entirely distinct because gay unions aren't trying to avoid negatives through state-recognized
status; they're trying to usurp positive benefits. Thus the 14th amendment does not apply. Gay's aren't being jailed simply
because of their choice of partner as these interracial couples were. There's a hard and fast distinction here.

As for calling marriage a "basic human right," this has more to do with the context of the time and the definition of the
word "marriage" than anything else. Marriage was and is defined as the union between one man to one woman. Nothing
in the Loving v. Virginia case would necessitate state-recognized same-sex marriage because it could be argued from
Justice Warren's own wording that marriage was invariably seen as a heterosexual union.

Notice that Warren says marriage is "fundamental for our existence and survival" (i.e. procreation, i.e. not gay).
Obviously he didn't mean that only procreating men and women can get married; but that he defined marriage as
something necessary for human existence certainly implies that he viewed marriage in its traditional context of one man
and one woman, ultimately aimed at the procreation of the species. It's clear from the context of the statement that the
judge was only speaking in reference to same-sex unions with reference to marriages.

As for this ruling setting "precedent" for the recognition of gay marriage, I'm afraid not.

The July 2006 majority opinion of the New York Court of Appeals in Hernandez v. Robles rejected the reliance on
Loving v. Virginia in defense of same-sex marriage, holding that:
The historical background of Loving is different from the history underlying this case. Racism has been recognized for
centuries — at first by a few people, and later by many more — as a revolting moral evil. This country fought a civil war
to eliminate racism's worst manifestation, slavery, and passed three constitutional amendments to eliminate that curse
and its vestiges. Loving was part of the civil rights revolution of the 1950s and 1960s, the triumph of a cause for which
many heroes and many ordinary people had struggled since our nation began. It is true that there has been serious
injustice in the treatment of homosexuals also, a wrong that has been widely recognized only in the relatively recent past,
and one our Legislature tried to address when it enacted the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act four years ago
(L 2002, ch 2). But the traditional definition of marriage is not merely a by-product of historical injustice. Its
history is of a different kind. The idea that same-sex marriage is even possible is a relatively new one. Until a few
decades ago, it was an accepted truth for almost everyone who ever lived, in any society in which marriage
existed, that there could be marriages only between participants of different sex. A court should not lightly
conclude that everyone who held this belief was irrational, ignorant or bigoted.
The concurring opinion added:
Plaintiffs' reliance on Loving v. Virginia (388 US 1 [1967]) for the proposition that the US Supreme Court has
established a fundamental "right to marry the spouse of one's choice" outside the male/female construct is
misplaced. In Loving, an interracial couple argued that Virginia's antimiscegenation statute, which precluded "any white
person in this State to marry any save a white person, or a person with no other admixture of blood than white and
American Indian" (id. at 5 n 4), violated the federal Due Process and Equal Protection clauses. The statute made
intermarriage in violation of its terms a felony carrying a potential jail sentence of one to five years. The Lovings—a
white man and a black woman—had married in violation of the law and been convicted, prompting them to challenge the
validity of the Virginia law. The Supreme Court struck the statute on both equal protection and due process grounds, but
the focus of the analysis was on the Equal Protection Clause. Noting that "[t]he clear and central purpose of the
Fourteenth Amendment was to eliminate all official state sources of invidious racial discrimination in the States," the
Court applied strict scrutiny review to the racial classification, finding "no legitimate overriding purpose independent of
invidious racial discrimination which justifies this classification" (id. at 10, 11). It made clear "that restricting the
freedom to marry solely because of racial classifications violates the central meaning of the Equal Protection Clause" (id.
at 12). There is no question that the Court viewed this antimiscegenation statute as an affront to the very purpose for the
adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment—to combat invidious racial discrimination. In its brief due process analysis,
the Supreme Court reiterated that marriage is a right "fundamental to our very existence and survival" (id.,
citing Skinner, 316 US at 541)—a clear reference to the link between marriage and procreation. It reasoned: "To
deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes
. . . is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law" (id.). Although the Court
characterized the right to marry as a "choice," it did not articulate the broad "right to marry the spouse of one's
choice" suggested by plaintiffs here. Rather, the Court observed that "[t]he Fourteenth Amendment requires that the
freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial discriminations" (id. [emphasis added]). Needless to say,
a statutory scheme that burdens a fundamental right by making conduct criminal based on the race of the individual who
engages in it is inimical to the values embodied in the state and federal Due Process clauses. Far from recognizing a right
to marry extending beyond the one woman and one man union, it is evident from the Loving decision that the
Supreme Court viewed marriage as fundamental precisely because of its relationship to human procreation.
As for Supreme Court precedent, the United States Supreme Court in 1972 dismissed Baker v. Nelson, which was a case
where the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that Minnesota law limited marriage to opposite-sex couples, and that this
limitation did not violate the United States Constitution. The plaintiffs appealed, and the United States Supreme Court,
409 U.S. 810 (1972), dismissed their appeal outright "for want of substantial federal question".

This ruling (because of its recency and its relevancy) supersedes Loving v. Virginia. The Supreme Court dismissal of
Baker v. Nelson serves as primary precedent as a matter of federal constitutional law because of the absence of federal
authority regarding same-sex marriage (due to the fledgling nature of the cause).

Hence, the intellectual conservative can safely say that there is no standing legal precedent which suggests gay marriage
is a right. As you may or may not be aware, older Supreme Court rulings are superseded by new ones, and so Loving v.
Virginia matters not.

Another favorite argument of the left is that "people have a right to enter into contracts of their own volition." That's
certainly correct, but any contract requires at least two willing participants. Gays can already live together by whatever
means they wish and call themselves by whatever title they desire, what they want now is state-recognized status. This,
therefore, is not a contract solely between the two gay people involved, but a contract between them and the state from
which they seek recognition, validation and subsidization. What we have with gay marriage is one willing participant
(the gay community) insisting that it has a right to a contract with the state. As with any contract, both parties must agree
- hence why state-recognized unions must be defined on a state-by-state basis.

At some point, you might even come across a gay marriage advocate who suggests that Christianity has "stolen" the idea
of marriage, and that marriage wasn't originally a religious institution.

One reason Christianity frequently creeps its way into this debate is because the book of Genesis defines marriage as the
"divinely ordained union between one man and one woman" (Genesis 2:24). Now, the intellectual conservative needn't
care how the Bible defines marriage because Biblical text cannot serve as an empirical or legal justification of policy.
But what does matter is that marriage has been a religious institution since the Torah (Old Testament) was written -
which precedes even Christianity, let alone the civilized process of state-recognized unions.

The Torah dates back to about 500 BC. What "legal" unions the gay-marriage advocate suggests existed before this time
period is uncertain. There were very few laws during this time period, let alone sophisticated means for state-recognized
statuses and taxation. We could perhaps look to Rome... but even in ancient Rome the Latin word for marriage,
"matrimonium," defines the institution's main function from the roman perspective.
Its root, "mater" (mother), carries with it the implication of heterosexual procreation. The idea conventionally shared by
Romans regarding the purpose of marriage was that it was a relationship between one man and one woman aimed at
producing legitimate children; citizens producing new citizens. Even by Roman standards, gays could not be "married" it
was then (as many feel it is now) a contradiction of terms.

And even if we were to use Roman standards, they didn't have state-recognized and supplemented unions like we do. So
even if ancient Rome had allowed gays to "marry," it wouldn't be relevant to this debate beyond a superficial level. And
for these Roman weddings, the "nuptiae" began with celebration, combining the legal, religious and social features of the
two being wed. This, again, shows the inherent link of marriage and religion.

We could go back even further in time to Ancient Greece. Grecian priests did not direct weddings, but a set of religious
rituals were followed, after which the couple would live together.

The gay marriage advocate would basically have to go back to Ancient Egypt to defend the claim that unions were
distinct from religion. Obviously, humans were procreating long before either formalized marriage, governments or
religions were ever conceived.

But I think a good general rule of thumb is: if you have to take your argument back 5,000 years to find a practice which
justifies your claims... you're probably wrong. But even if we did reference the ancient Egyptians, all a "marriage" was to
them was the signing of a contract between the parties involved. There was no real Egyptian "government" to recognize
any such union as legitimate, and there were no tax-funded benefits which could be conferred to such unions. So, the
reference would be totally irrelevant.

Liberal attempts to completely detach marriage from its religious history are laughable. Obviously, humans in their
monogamous nature, had processes for forming unions which predate religion, government... hell.. even speech. The fact
remains, "marriage" has always been a religious institution. What the Ancient Egyptians had was not marriage in the way
that marriage exists today or has existed for thousands of years. In actuality, ancient Egyptian unions were more like
slavery (where daughters were bartered for like property) than anything else.

This isn't to say that the act of two people being together has always been religiously overseen - but the process of
forming an official union between two consenting adults known as "marriage" has always been a religious institution.

So where does all this information leave the intellectual conservative? There are two levels of conclusion to this matter:
procedural and personal.

For the intellectually conservative procedural solution to the gay marriage issue, there are several things which must be
done and/or realized:
1. There is no standing legal precedent which defines marriage in such a way that gay couples might claim it as a
right.
2. All state-recognized unions (same or opposite-sex) should be exclusively referred to in legislation as "civil
unions."
3. The government (federal, state or local) should have no association with the religious conferral of marital
statuses. Marriages have no business in state affairs, and the state has no business meddling with marriage.
Usurping the term "marriage" is like an atheist claiming Christian Baptism as a "right." That's just a false
application of the term "right."
4. The people of each state should have a democratic say in what it is they will recognize (and consequentially
subsidize) as a state-recognized union (i.e. civil union). This is not a decision to be made by activist courts.
5. There are certain unfair and unequal practices in action (like the Don't Ask don't Tell policy) which actively
punish gays as individuals solely because of their sexual orientation. Infringement of personal liberty is not
something conservatism supports.
On the personal level, the intellectual conservative has far more leeway to let his personal value system come into play.
Insofar as the above procedural approach is taken, the conservative can then vote on the gay marriage issue in
accordance with his own values.
Do you think recognizing and subsidizing gay unions will benefit your community and state? That's a question no one
can answer for you but yourself, but it is a question you have a right to answer. And the consensus of the citizens of your
state, not the ruling of an activist judicial body, should be the deciding factor on how your tax money is spent.

It's certainly not the case that you must covet everything which the liberal covets for fear of being seen as a "bigot." I
know this seems to be the MSM suggestion, but it simply isn't the case. Maybe you would rather your tax money go to
additional school funding, or paying off government deficits. In any case, you're not a bigot simply by virtue of having a
preference in how your tax money is spent. And you're not a bigot just because you support the traditional definition of
marriage.

Despite the massive megaphone being used by Hollywood, the MSM and liberal academia to tout gay marriage,
traditional marriage still has historical context, legal precedent and the majority of Americans on its side. The intellectual
conservative can very easily make the case against gay marriage without promoting hate or discrimination. The facts as
you've seen them here are rarely presented by conservatives to defend themselves. So it is my hope that you will make
use of this information to defend intellectual conservatism from the vicious smears of the Left while also exposing the
fundamentally unsound arguments used by gay marriage advocates.