Marriage & Family

Tolerance!

By Justin Katz | July 29, 2009 |

Remind me, again, who the intolerant bigots are? The police are investigating an assault Tuesday on Bald Hill Road. The weapon of choice: soda, salsa, eggs … “Your basic garden variety of food condiments,” Capt. Robert Nelson said Wednesday. It started as the four men stood at the median on Bald Hill Road and East…

Have Progressives Discovered the Tenth Amendment?

By Carroll Andrew Morse | July 9, 2009 |

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is suing the Federal Government on behalf of the state of Massachusetts, claiming that the Federal Defense of Marriage Act “interferes with the Commonwealth’s sovereign authority to define and regulate marriage”. A portion of the suit alleges that the Federal Government has exceeded the limitations on its power set by…

The Unknown Variable in the Marriage Poll

By Justin Katz | July 2, 2009 |

This recent letter from Lewis Prescott, of Lincoln, reminded me that I have yet to receive a response to phone and email inquiries about the age-range breakdown behind Brown professor Marion Orr’s recent poll finding support for same-sex marriage. Prescott is suspicious: If you ever want to take a poll and have the results turn…

Evolving Out of Social Chaos

By Justin Katz | June 27, 2009 |

Among the more foolish slams against traditionalists is that our views are arbitrary religious dictates disconnected from realms of clear reality like science. Folks who believe that trope would likely find Faye Flam’s mention of homosexuality in her recent op-ed on male behavior to count as evidence: I also learned there’s abundant homosexual behavior in…

The Clarity of the Point Is the Point Itself on Marriage

By Justin Katz | June 24, 2009 |

In a letter responding to my recent op-ed on same-sex marriage, Peter Asen does the service of illustrating why opposition to same-sex marriage is not the same as anti-gay bigotry. Readers should be apprised of the fact that I did not argue that homosexuality should be hidden from view. Rather, I suggested that marriage should…

The Marriage Debate in the Wake of the Buckley Conservative Movement

By Justin Katz | June 19, 2009 |

For the opening speech of the Portsmouth Institute’s Friday session, Maggie Gallagher traced the effects of a few cultural (particularly marital) trends on the conservative fusionism that William F. Buckley, Jr., helped to develop. Some highlights: On the character Bill Buckley cut for himself by “refusing to grow” (meaning to become gradually more liberal upon…

Interesting Poll Results

By Justin Katz | June 16, 2009 |

One hardly needs to be a far-right-winger to observe that the Providence Journal has been a local booster of the same-sex marriage cause, so it’s not but so interesting to compare for bias the front-page coverage of the Victor Profughi poll, commissioned by the National Organization for Marriage Rhode Island, finding more opposed than supportive,…

What Marriage Means to Children

By Justin Katz | June 8, 2009 |

I’ve got a piece in today’s Providence Journal in which I attempt to explain a subtle mechanism whereby the simple change in the definition of marriage to incorporate same-sex couples can have a profound effect on society. It isn’t about the effect on adults’ current marriages, but on marriages yet to be consummated.

After a Difficult Violent Roundtable, Part 3

By Justin Katz | June 8, 2009 |

As I intimated yesterday, conservatives’ appropriate fear of populist movements connects with our conviction that the nexus of power and desire ought to be checked. (One can be fearful even of that which is necessary, of course.) During Friday night’s all–Anchor Rising Violent Roundtable on the Matt Allen Show, Marc and Matt kicked off a…

After a Difficult Violent Roundtable, Part 2

By Justin Katz | June 7, 2009 |

A second conversation in which sufficient articulation proved difficult on Friday night’s all–Anchor Rising Violent Roundtable on the Matt Allen Show related to Matt’s statement that the Catholic Church is in some respects an anti-American institution. Having such a strong statement catch one off guard doesn’t make measured extemporaneous response an easy accomplishment, but upon…