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02/23/2015
Exec. Editor of conservative bible 'National Review' signs statement to 'make marriage achievable for all who seek it'
Reihan Salam, executive editor of the conservative movement's stalwart publication, National Review, has joined over one hundred other scholars and leaders (including quite a few conservatives) in signing on to a new statement that marriage equality opponent-cum-proponent David Blankenhorn has spearheaded through his Institute for American Values. The statement, titled "Marriage Opportunity: The Moment for National Action," works off of the following ten propositions:
Executive Summary: Our Argument in Ten Propositions
*For the first time since the controversial Moynihan Report of 1965, marriage as culture war in America can now be replaced by marriage as common cause and a common conversation.
*An organizing principle of this conversation is to identify, reduce, and where possible eliminate social, economic, and legal barriers to marriage.
*We, like other Americans, continue to hold diverse views on gay marriage, but we come together to acknowledge that it is here to stay and to emphasize and enhance the good that it can do.
*America's growing separation into two countries—upscale America in which marriage typically succeeds and mainstream America in which marriage typically fails—threatens all of us and threatens the American idea, which is based on broadly shared thriving.
*The splitting of American marriage along class lines both results from and significantly contributes to American inequality. The issues of inequality and family are inextricably linked.
*Liberals fighting for social justice and economic opportunity are now called by the logic of their values to help extend the advantages of marriage to low- and middle-income couples who seek it for themselves, much as they fought to help gay Americans attain marriage.
*Conservatives fighting for social stability and stronger families can now, based on the logic of their deepest values, recognize gays and lesbians who seek the same family values.
*Gays and lesbians who are winning marriage for themselves can also help to lead the nation as a whole to a new embrace of marriage's promise.
*Americans can come together as a nation to make marriage achievable for all who seek it.
*We come together as a Marriage Opportunity Council to make this argument, to appeal to our fellow citizens to join us, and to carry out this work.
FULL: Marriage Opportunity: The Moment for National Action [IAV]
Moreover, the statement insists that gay equality and family values are becoming "one and the same," and it calls on conservatives to build on the good of marriage equality:
Today, however, "family values" is an inclusive rubric. As same-sex marriage and parenting reach the cultural mainstream, gay equality and family values increasingly become one and the same. Same-sex spouses and parents have all the same interests as opposite-sex spouses and parents in strong marriages, safe streets, good schools, healthy communities, and the other ingredients of a child-friendly society. Once viewed warily even by some within the LGBT community itself, marriage now frames the aspirations of many young gay and lesbian Americans. Indeed, the gay population is emerging as an important new constituency for family values.
...
Third and finally, conservatives are coming to recognize that their interests and values are best served today by an agenda that builds on rather than merely opposes same-sex marriage. Some conservatives may perceive the rise of same-sex marriage as a defeat and a dead end. We believe that it is better seen as an open doorway. Same-sex marriage is a durable fixture of the American landscape. The trend in public opinion is obvious. According to most polls, same-sex marriage now boasts the approval of a national majority, and among young Americans it is close to uncontroversial. A conservative family agenda premised on the exclusion of gay people and families is a nonstarter with young Americans and would, if carried forward, do more to marginalize conservatism than strengthen families.
This change is an opportunity for the pro-family movement. Conservatives today are able to talk to a much broader portion of the public. They can ask, "What does a pro-family agenda look like if it does not feature the exclusion of gay and lesbian people? What do ‘family values' look like when freed of any tincture of anti-gay animus?" When the discussion is framed in those terms, conservatives can take a leading role in building a broader pro-family consensus than the country has seen in three generations.
Unlike the older family values agenda, this new agenda need not and should not write off anyone who seeks to be a good parent or spouse. On the contrary, it is difficult to think of measures to strengthen opposite-sex marriage and parenthood that do not also strengthen same-sex marriage and parenthood—and vice versa.
For conservatives, the paradigm that once seemed to pit equality and inclusion against family and children has stopped making sense. The right, like the left, cannot very well advance either equality or family without advancing both.
FULL: Marriage Opportunity: The Moment for National Action [IAV]
A person who very much helps shape the style and tone of National Review—of NATIONAL friggin' REVIEW!—just signed on to this. That's a statement apart from the actual statement text! A pretty big one, in fact.
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