Op-Ed Contributor: Joining the Debate but Missing the Point

#2 Op-Ed Contributor: Joining the Debate but Missing the Point: "Supporters and opponents of gay marriage are talking past each other. Social conservatives argue from the premise that marriage is important to society — the president called it 'the most fundamental institution of civilization' — and must be protected. Letting gays wed will undermine marriage, they say, but they are seldom able to explain how.

Proponents of same-sex marriage, meanwhile, make a rights-based argument, insisting that gays deserve the freedom to marry — but they don't address the possible impact of gay marriage on society. As a result, they are open to the valid retort that if marriage is an individual right (instead of a social good), why not polygamous, incestuous or child marriages?

(He goes on to answer this question later...)
For a productive dialogue, we should be asking the question this way: is giving gays the right to marry good for society? And to answer that, we must ask what larger social purpose marriage serves."