The controversy over California’s Proposition 8, which was passed with a majority vote in 2008, has since sparked a public discourse which has brought the issue of gay marriage back into focus. Cable news pundits, state legislatures, town hall meetings, and, perhaps most importantly as far as producing results, the judicial system have all wrestled with the subject.
We often look at argument in terms of “who won”. Yet what we are witnessing right now is a process that’s just as important as the outcome itself. Commentators on both sides of the aisle are fighting to frame the debate in an attempt to gain control over the conversation. And through this public struggle in which both sides have an opportunity to be heard, an increasingly tolerant public opinion will prevail.
Below, we see Rachel Maddow framing the debate in an unusual but perhaps strategically brilliant light: gay marriage as a “fundamentally conservative idea”.
Say what?
As evidence, Maddow brings on to her show a legal odd couple who have helped fast-track Proposition 8 to an eventual United States Supreme Court ruling. Ted Olsen and David Boies, who were opposing lawyers in the landmark Bush v. Gore ruling, have crossed aisles to spearhead the movement to overturn Proposition 8 and create a federal precedent for marriage equality on a national level.
Like Maddow, Olsen and Boies frame the debate over gay marriage in a broad stroke that’s difficult to find fault with. It is a clearly legal strategy, but by branding marriage equality as an “American value”, who can disagree? In court, these two have consistently brought real people into the conversation to show the human side of this controversial subject and make opposing it seem that much more extreme and out-of-touch.
It is, of all things, a centrist position that is taking the legal battle over gay marriage to within striking distance of the finish line.
Read Ted Olsen’s The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage Newsweek article here:
Castro Street 
I am enjoying reading your blog and and it is interesting to see your perspective on gay marriage. I do understand your point “a conservative case for gay marriage,” but I wonder if it is neither a conservative, nor liberal issue, but it is fundamentally a civil rights issue. Regardless of politics, marriage equality is about civil rights. I’m glad you are engaged in making the world a better place. Kudos to you.
Here is another article you might enjoy:
Best regards,
Michael
I agree, marriage equality is fundamentally a civil rights issue, though I think it’s interesting to see how it has been increasingly argued on what I believe to be traditionally ‘conservative’ grounds. But you’re right, it shouldn’t be a conservative OR liberal value. It SHOULD be an American value.
Thanks for reading and thanks for the link! I’m on my way to check it out! I appreciate it. 🙂
Well, I’m just grateful for people like you that are engaged and working hard for equality!
Best regards,
Michael