If the Court had not placed its big fat foot in this arena, legislatures could have done the necessary weighing and balancing of competing values and interests among the people. It is legislatures, not courts, that are best equipped to accommodate "emerging awarenesses."
Perhaps we don't want homosexuals branded as law-breakers when they engage in private acts at home, but we really don't want to encourage such unions by permitting gay marriage (for what it's worth, that's my personal view). All of this, as Scalia emphasizes, falls within the normal purview of a legislature.
But all of these kinds of distinctions may now be "unconstitutional" because the Court has thrown the mantle of "right to privacy" on all matters relating to adult sexuality. According to the reasoning of Lawrence vs. Texas, laws forbidding adult incest, bigamy, bestiality and many other sexual activities may now be on shaky ground. Justice Kennedy was sentimental about gay sex, asserting that "when sexuality finds overt expression in intimate conduct with another person, the conduct can be but one element in a personal bond that is more enduring." This may or may not be the case (certainly some homosexuals engage in "intimate conduct" in the complete absence of a "personal bond," as anyone who's heard of a gay bathhouse knows), but from a legal point of view, it pulls the supports out from under many prohibitions on sexual behavior. Don't mother and son involved in incest have a "personal bond"?
And isn't the state entitled, in some cases, to prohibit certain sexual activity just because most of us find it deplorable? I, for one, would outlaw the viewing of child pornography by anyone, anywhere, including in the privacy of his home. Further, I would outlaw it even if it were entirely computer-generated (that is, no actual children were harmed by its production), because I think the state has a right to enforce minimal standards of decency in its citizenry.
The Supreme Court makes a very poor legislature. Its broad pronouncements of new rights restrict our collective right to create the kind of society we prefer through democratic means.