Joe My God has great coverage of Proposition 8, and points to a good piece of backstory about gay marriage in the New Yorker. I'll be following the whole thing on Andrew Sullivan and Slog.
Theodore Olsen, one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs, explains why gay marriage is consistent with good ol' conservative American values:
Many of my fellow conservatives have an almost knee-jerk hostility toward gay marriage. This does not make sense, because same-sex unions promote the values conservatives prize. Marriage is one of the basic building blocks of our neighborhoods and our nation. At its best, it is a stable bond between two individuals who work to create a loving household and a social and economic partnership. We encourage couples to marry because the commitments they make to one another provide benefits not only to themselves but also to their families and communities. Marriage requires thinking beyond one's own needs. It transforms two individuals into a union based on shared aspirations, and in doing so establishes a formal investment in the well-being of society. The fact that individuals who happen to be gay want to share in this vital social institution is evidence that conservative ideals enjoy widespread acceptance. Conservatives should celebrate this, rather than lament it.Read the whole thing. It's brilliant.
Incidentally, Olsen and his co-counsel, David Boies, were adversaries in a little 2000 U.S. Supreme Court case you may have heard of called Bush v. Gore.
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