Tuesday, June 6, 2006

Holes in Gay Marriage History

Here's the letter on gay marriage that Romney sent to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. Romney writes:

"Our society, like all known civilizations in recorded history, has favored the union of a man and a woman with the special designation and benefits of marriage."

Actually, recorded history and known civilizations tell a very different story.

In the United States, it wasn't always easy for a man to marry a woman until 1967 when the United States Supreme Court ended all legal bans on interracial marriage.

Same-sex unions have occurred across continents and centuries. In medieval times, some were church sanctioned, according to John Boswell who wrote "Same Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe." And in some cultures, individual men have several wives.

Yale Law School Professor William Eskridge makes a modern case in his book, Gay Marriage: For Better or For Worse? : What We've Learned from the Evidence.

Posted by at 01:43 PM

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