GAYS DEFEND MARRIAGE

My newest “Fabulously Observant” column appears in today’s Dallas Voice. It’s mostly about other things than marriage, but I thought I’d link to it because it describes five issues that people on both sides of the homosexuality debate have an interest in working together on, even if we don’t yet see eye-to-eye on subjects like marriage. Here’s an excerpt:

• Adoption: Gay parents and religious conservatives are unlikely to agree on state policies like Florida’s, which ban gay adoption, or Massachusetts’ that bar agencies from giving preference to families with both a mother and a father.

But in those jurisdictions which do allow gay adoption, traditionally religious people have a joint interest with gay and lesbian parents to foster government policies (like tax credits) that benefit families that adopt.

The more adoptions, the fewer abortions, so traditional people can push for pro-adoption legislation alongside those of us who disagree with them about the fitness of gays to be adoptive parents….

Working together on the above issues is unlikely to make a Southern Baptist hope for a lesbian daughter, or to make a gay man become “born again.” But by cooperating on important policy areas we’re all invested in, perhaps we can stop seeing each other as the “enemy.”

Then, down the road, when discussing the definition of marriage or non-discrimination laws, we will be better able to listen to each other and try to find some common ground.