Two recent news developments highlight once again the fallacy of "rational rejection" of the rights of gay Americans by social conservatives. In their ongoing quest to mask theology as social science, they have once run into the dual brick walls of the academy and the Supreme Court.
The first instance of conservatives being "mugged by reality" (to appropriate neocon Irving Kristol's phrase) comes from the University of Virginia, where a study led by Dr. Charlotte J. Patterson showed that teenagers raised by two women appear to be as well adjusted as those who are raised by male-female couples. "Their adjustment is pretty normal - that is, indistinguishable from a matched group of kids being raised by opposite-sex parents," noted Patterson. She added that "I think that our results speak to that concern", meaning the concern of critics that same-sex parents "may in some way harm the children that are raised in these households."
In a second blow to supposed values vigilantes, the Supreme Court on November 29th refused to hear the appeal of the same-sex marriage case from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. The Court apparently had little sympathy for the Catholic Action League and a group of state lawmakers and their claim that "protect the citizens of Massachusetts from their own state supreme court's usurpation of power." The Supremes may well have agreed with Boston city attorney Merita Hopkins that the "deeply felt interest in the outcome of a case does not constitute an actual injury" to those who had filed suit.
Unfortunately, these snippets of sanity don't offset the reality of state action against same-sex marriage, even in Massachusetts. And GOP control of the White House and Congress means that in the future, the Supreme Court may well change course after 40 years of expanding personal liberties and privacy rights.
For much more detail on these issues, see:
"States' Blights: Why the Rights of Gay Americans Can't Be Left to the States"