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Dr. Linda Quest, my undergraduate Poli Sci professor, often made the statement that "you cannot legislate morality."  I recalled Dr. Quest's aphorism again this week as the media filled with accounts of the oral arguments before the Supreme Court in the Proposition 8 and Defense of Marriage Act cases. Both involve the question of same-sex marriage, the morality of which is apparently at issue in each.  It was definitely explicit in the Judiciary Committee's  report to the full House on the original DOMA bill back in 1996.*

There has also been a strain of amazement in various media about the growing public acceptance of SSM. Chief Justice Roberts, for instance, in his questioning of plaintiff attorney Roberta Kaplan, seemed bent on attributing the change in public attitude to the political influence brought on by gay lobbying efforts . With recent polls showing that under-30 Americans support SSM in overwhelming numbers, I believe that acceptance is due more to a basic fact: Gays are increasingly out now,  more of us have gay friends and relatives, and gay culture is a more apparent part of the mainstream than ever.  

And that brings me to the seemingly self-defeating position that the Republican Party clings to. With a platform that firmly declares marriage an institution between a man and a woman, the Party is culturally out-of-step with a new generation of voters. Pinned in the corner by the Christian right and other "conservative" elements of its fragile coalition, the GOP hangs onto the SSM issue as it were a hostage. I am reminded of a dialogue been the Jeff Daniel and Keanu Reeves characters in the movie "Speed" about dealing with a hostage situation:

"Shoot the hostage."

"What?"

"Take her out of the equation."

The GOP would doubtless stand to gain taking same-sex marriage "out of the equation."

*One of the report's sections is entitled "H.R. 3396 ADVANCES THE GOVERNMENT'S INTEREST IN DEFENDING TRADITIONAL NOTIONS OF MORALITY".