Gay marriage should be legalized because it will remedy several social problems stemming from a disregard for marriage, writer Jonathan Rauch said Tuesday in a talk titled "Will Gay Marriage Help or Hurt America's Children?"
"Same-sex marriage is part of the solution to our marriage problem," he said.
Speaking to a near-capacity crowd in Robertson Bowl 16, Rauch said gay marriage would make people take the institution of marriage more seriously and encourage single parents to remarry.
"My belief is that the cultural message that same-sex marriage will send is not that 'anything goes,' but that marriage goes," he said. "Every marriage increases social capital."
As a result, he said, fewer children would be born out of wedlock and more would be raised in two-parent homes. Gay marriage — which Rauch called the "single most important, pressing family issue today" — should be legalized for this reason, he explained.
"[Gay marriage] is not only a civil rights issue; it's also a morals issue, a family policy issue," he said. "It's about the signals we ought to send and the structure we ought to encourage."
Rauch, a self-described "radical incrementalist," proposed that gay marriage first be legalized in several states to examine its influence on traditional marriage. If gay marriage were "to wreck straight marriage, it's not worth having," he said, though he added that any consequences of legalization would probably be positive.
After Rauch discussed his research, New Jersey Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-N.J.) spoke on gay marriage policy.
Gusciora, who alluded frequently to the courts' influence in shaping civil rights and cited gay marriage as "the next frontier," said gay marriage should be handled by the judicial branch rather than the legislature.
New Jersey is "silent" on the matter of same-sex marriage, Gusciora said, though it is one of nine states that allows gay couples to adopt children.
He added that he expects a court decision on the issue in favor of gay rights advocates in spring 2006.
After the lecture, the two speakers answered the audience's questions, most of which concerned Rauch's proposed "incrementalist" approach.
Rauch's talk was sponsored by the Wilson School and the Center for Research and Child Wellbeing as part of their "Researcher Meets Policy Maker" series.
Maggie Gallagher, president of the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, will argue in a public lecture today that changing the legal boundaries of marriage will destroy its inherent meaning.
Her lecture is sponsored by the Anscombe Society.
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