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Academic

: The Faculty Lounge

Will Religious Exemptions Accelerate Adoption Of Same Sex Marriage?

By Dan Filler

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New Hampshire's governor, John Lynch, has refused to sign a same sex marriage bill that does not include substantial protections for religious individuals and institutions who disagree with the law. He's received a couple of letters from legal academics supporting this stance: Rick Garnett, Robin Wilson, Carl Esbeck, and Tom Berg wrote this one and Doug Laycock, Michael Perry, Andrew Koppelman and Marc Stern wrote this one. Peter Steinfels, in the NY Times, suggests that this New Hampshire conversation may affect the way that other states approach same sex marriage authorization. (Thus far, the New York bill does not include these sorts of religious exemptions.) Some commentators understandably feel anxiety about these provisions.

I wonder, however, whether these religious exemptions are actually good news for supporters of same sex marriage. They move the debate in the direction of how to implement the laws. They give cover to ambivalent legislators who can now distance themselves from gay activists, standing instead with religious communities (even as they vote for new rights.) Most importantly, a debate over exemptions transforms the same sex marriage critique from a "demise of society" platform to an "imposing burdens on others" platform - which, frankly, is a lot easier for gay marriage supporters to navigate.

And over time, if the public increasingly sees anti-gay discrimination as similar to racism (and I suspect it will), both democratic majorities and courts will eliminate these provisions.

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on May 26, 2009 (boomark / email).