Someone brought up the topic of homosexual marriage some post back, and said that we can't refer to the Founders because no Founding document ever mentions the subject. Well, for one, that doesn't really matter, and for two, the Founders had things to say on homosexuality in general, and generally cast it as contrary to good citizenship.
Also, I can't believe you said law should not be based on tradition. Let me count the ways that law is based on tradition. English common law, the basis of much of Western and American law relies heavily on tradition, and the English Constitution, which is unwritten is nearly 100% tradition. Law would not exist without a rich and deep tradition. And to say we can't use tradition because it would have no foresight, I say hogwash. Foresight to what? That doesn't make any sense.
Now, Several states around the country have slowly begun to challenge or question the assumption that marriage should be reserved for the union of a man and woman.
In a free society, such as in America, the primary organizing and stabilizing factor is the family. Alexis de Tocqueville, an astute French observer of American life, notes in his book, Democracy in America, that “There is no country in the world where the tie of marriage is more respected than in America. In Europe, almost all the disturbances of society arise from irregularities in domestic life.” He goes on to call the American family “an image of order and peace” as well as the device in which the American man moderates his opinions and tastes. In other words, a nation which produces strong families is likely to also produce effective governments. Tocqueville laments the lack of such family life in his home country, which he describes as full of “fluctuating desire”, “restlessness of heart”, and “agitated by tumultuous passions.” The moderation of American thinking and public service Tocqueville, at least partially, attributes to the strength and tradition of the American family.
The recognition of civil unions between two men or two women would inevitably lead to the decline of the American family as it has been understood since the inception of our nation. Without the moral and sensible regulation the family brings to life, America could drift into an era of moral disintegration, social agitation, and political extremism. The creation of a good, upright citizenry is best done through the influence of traditional family life.
Tocqueville saw the disruptive nature of French life and recoiled. To embrace such contemporary radicalism, would have an extraordinary negative effect. Men and women who choose to engage in sexual activitiesw with other members of the same gender already have the right to marry(to a member of the opposite sex, of course) -no right of theirs has been taken away.
