On NRO today, Heather Mac Donald has an interesting essay, “Reengineering the Family.” Here is her concluding paragraph:

The facile libertarian argument that gay marriage is a trivial matter that affects only the parties involved is astoundingly blind to the complexity of human institutions and to the web of sometimes imperceptible meanings and practices that compose them. Equally specious is the central theme in attorney Theodore Olson’s legal challenge to California’s Proposition 8: that only religious belief or animus towards gays could explain someone’s hesitation regarding gay marriage. Anyone with the slightest appreciation for the Burkean understanding of tradition will feel the disquieting burden of his ignorance in this massive act of social reengineering, even if he ultimately decides that the benefits to gays from gay marriage outweigh the risks of the unknown.

Update: A reader makes the good point that those unfamiliar with Mac Donald should know that she describes herself as a nonbeliever and is clearly among those whose concerns about same-sex marriage don’t derive at all from “religious belief” (or from “animus towards gays”).