How Does Gay Marriage Harm Marriage?

One of the most persistent questions about gay marriage is what’s the big deal? How does it harm heterosexual marriage to let gay couples make marriage commitments?

Stanley Kurtz answers the question at NRO today. He says the importance of marriage revolves around providing a stable place for children to be raised. . . and non-marital relationships — “gay” or otherwise — or just not as stable. His key point:

So instead of highlighting marriage’s privileged status as a site for parenthood, partnership legislation is communicating the message that marriage is no different from cohabitation. . .In both a literal-legal and a metaphorical sense, the first gay partnership law was tied to a radically skeptical attitude toward marriage as the preferred site for parenthood.