Lee Bockhorn has a very thoughtful piece out today on gay marriage. I think Lee is right that this is a battle that must be fought, and that it is far too early to be defeatist. I also agree with Lee that all the traditional conservative points about marriage can and should be invoked in this debate. I would add, however, that it is not necessary to believe that marriage ought to return to what it was in the fifties in order to oppose same-sex marriage. As I said a bit earlier today, even with all of the changes in marriage since the sixties (some for ill, some for good, some for both), gay marriage challenges elements of marriage that still enjoy a rough consensus by the public–monogamy and the connection between marriage and child rearing. Gay marriage does not simply ratify what marriage has already become. Gay marriage undercuts even those pillars of our current reformed version of marriage that are still surprisingly strong. That is why I think a coalition of social conservatives and social moderates against gay marriage can be built–but only if we have the kind of battle that forces a real debate.