Presidential hopeful Al Sharpton recently played the race card when he claimed that the media are ignoring him because he's black, ergo, the media are racist. No, the chorus might say were the chorus not so intimidated by the charge, the media are ignoring Sharpton because he can't be taken seriously.
If you suggest as President Bush did - in the most temperate way possible - that marriage is intended for a man and a woman in order to procreate and raise children, you're quickly labeled homophobic. The best "gay" counterargument is to point out that plenty of heterosexual couples, such as Sen. John Kerry, are in post-childbearing marriages.
And so what? Plenty of couples are also infertile. Lots are miserable. But those facts hardly alter the obvious biological design or necessitate alteration of societal structures organized to nurture the ideal.
Let's ignore God (that should be easy enough), and all our gay friends and relatives for just a minute (not so easy), and try to be objective. Is gay marriage constructive? Is it useful to society? Does it solve any problem that can't be solved any other way? I'm unconvinced by arguments favoring holy matrimony for homosexuals when civil remedies are - or can be made - available.
It seems unnecessary, meanwhile, to justify and explain all the reasons why marriage between a man and a woman is beneficial and necessary to civilization. It seems equally unnecessary to jettison our most fundamental social institution in order to accommodate and sanction marriage between two men or two women. As Jonah Goldberg wrote, "In a sane world there would be no need for a 'ban' on gay marriage because marriage means the union between a man and a woman."
Whatever we decide - and gay marriage may win the day - people are not wrong to be concerned. And it is not homophobic to suggest that we may have lost our minds.