GAY MARRIAGE….The Washington Post reports that President Bush has decided to try and distract attention from his other problems by publicly endorsing a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. Apparently he favors the wording proposed by Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.):
Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution or the constitution of any State, nor state or federal law, shall be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups.
Its backers say that this wording is a compromise: it prevents courts from forcing states to accept gay marriage but does not stop state legislatures from allowing civil unions. But if that’s really the aim, why not make the language more specific? As it stands, it’s not at all clear that that’s what the amendment does.
