Editorial: Support Republicans who sign legal brief on same-sex marriage

For many of us members of the Millennial generation — those born after 1980 — it feels outmoded to condemn being gay, bisexual, queer or transgender. Most college students are in favor of marriage equality — we’re just waiting for the government to catch up with us. Happily, 75 prominent Republicans — including several advisers to former President George W. Bush and presidential nominee Mitt Romney — have signed a legal brief that says that gay people have a constitutional right to marry. This standpoint is in direct conflict with the stance still held by many Republicans, including Speaker of the House John Boehner.

The brief will be submitted to the Supreme Court as support in a suit against California’s Proposition 8, a ballot initiative prohibiting gay marriage. If opponents of Proposition 8 win the case, the suit would end all other states’ attempts to illegalize gay marriage on the basis that marriage is a constitutional right.

Many of the brief’s supporters are surprising: Meg Whitman supported Proposition 8 when she ran for the position of governor of California; James Comey, one of Bush’s Justice Department officials, and Stephen Hadley, one of Bush’s national security advisers, are not typically seen as supporters of gay rights, and some other Republicans have recently changed their minds on this issue. President Barack Obama has said that he supports same-sex marriage, but he would like to leave the issue up to the states to decide.

In an about-face from previous party stances on gay marriage, the Republican brief argues that gay marriage is consistent with conservative values. It says that there is no legal or sociological basis for banning same-sex marriage and that such bans do not strengthen or support the institution of heterosexual marriage. The brief and its supporters also say that gay marriage is consistent with the value of limited government involvement in everyday life.

According to UCLA’s annual national survey of college freshmen, 71.3 percent of freshmen in 2011 agreed that gay people have the right to legally get married. Therefore, most Pitt students, and college students cross-country, will probably support this legal brief and all that it represents — allowing people the societal rights and benefits that marriage entails without being in a heterosexual marriage, the inclusion of people who aren’t heterosexual in our legal code, and legal recognition of the equality of several types of sexual orientations. Finally, the conservative definition of “family values” can now apply to many types of families.

The signing of this legal brief might make the Republican party a viable option for Millennials. Universities are generally politically liberal places, and it’s safe to say that the majority of Pitt students lean left. Many college students cannot imagine voting for a party that disagrees with them on issues that many of us have come to see as a civil rights concern.

Hopefully, more Republicans and, eventually, a majority of voters in the Supreme Court will support this stance. It’s not enough to leave this up to the states — there will only be true equality in marriage rights when every American is able to freely marry.