Gay Marriage Won't Impact Straight Marriage

Sheesh, even Lou Dobbs thinks that the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) doesn't have a good reason for being so virulently against same-sex marriage.  Last night, Maggie Gallagher (the former George W. Bush protege who now directs NOM) and LGBT activist Tobias Wolff were on Lou Dobbs tonight talking about the Defense of Marriage Act.  Dobbs isn't necessarily known as a supporter of marriage equality.  In fact, he's been invited to speak at the Family Research Council's Value Voters Summit this year.

But who knows...maybe on this issue, even Dobbs is able to recognize common sense.  And by all accounts, common sense leads the majority of people to conclude that same-sex marriage will have absolutely no impact on straight marriages.  Here's part of the transcript:

DOBBS: Of all of the things that I have seen over the course of my career, you know, listening as an assault on heterosexual marriage, I have never seen -- and you correct me. I mean, where does gay marriage stand? Where is it in the queue for threat against heterosexual marriage?

GALLAGHER: Well, I think...

DOBBS: And what is the causal relationship?

GALLAGHER: Well, I think that when the government changes the definition of marriage, it changes for everyone. And when the government says the idea that marriage...

DOBBS: No, I'm not (inaudible) about -- no, no, no. Excuse me, please.

GALLAGHER: Yes.

DOBBS: I'm not asking -- I'm not asking anybody to change the definition of anything. I'm just asking you how is a heterosexual couple in marriage in any way assaulted by a homosexual couple in marriage.

Gallagher doesn't really have an answer to the question of why gay marriage would impact straight marriage.  And that's probably because there is no good reason why gay marriage would negatively impact straight marriage.  And that's a point Dobbs nails home at the end.

DOBBS: One in two marriages in this country, heterosexual marriages, ends in divorce.
We are watching two-thirds in some cases of children born out of wedlock. We have a disaster in this country. And, I mean, it could be argued, it seems to me, at least -- and forgive me for saying it this way -- that you're blaming homosexuals for an institution that's under assault from just about everyone but gays.

There's that old line that heterosexuals have done a fine enough job of messing up the idea of marriage without needing gays to help.  That seems to be where Dobbs is coming from.

Besides, if two people love one another - straight or gay - then the institution of marriage is better off letting both of these sets of couples get together.  Maggie Gallagher will never have an adequate comeback for that, because essentially she'd have to argue against love.

And life is just too short for most people to listen to haters who want to argue against love.