This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2004, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

As conservatives rush to condemn gay marriage, let's consider that in fighting for the right to marry, gays manifest their support for the institution. Far from undermining it, they affirm that gay cohabitation should be governed by the same rules and limitations that apply to heterosexual unions. The political right, in pushing to ban gay marriage, says there will continue to be two kinds of sexual unions, those few to which marriage laws apply, and everything else.

Unfortunately, everything else, according to census data, is the more rapidly growing variety, with many couples opting against marriage because of the stigma of abusive, one-sided (patriarchal), conservative morality attached to it. Who is the real threat to the institution of marriage, those desperately wanting to be governed by it (gays) or those pillars of society wanting to reserve it exclusively for those who think and act the way they do?

Not long ago, the pillars of local society practiced polygamy. Conservative U.S. society refused to recognize their marriages and persecuted them for their “deviant” behavior, which was a threat to marriage, conventionally conceived, if there ever was one. Despite the fact that it now takes a different stance on polygamy, the dominant local religion ought to appreciate what it means to be called deviant when, in fact, their adoption of the language and legalities of marriage indicates that the reverse is the case.

Edwin Firmage Jr.

Salt Lake City