David Blankenhorn: Respected Crusader For Same-Sex Marriage Swaps Sides

David Blankenhorn used to be a national figure in the movement against gay marriage. Now, however, he has announced he is switching sides, as “the time has come for me to accept gay marriage and emphasize the good that it can do.”

The New York Times reports that Blankenhorn, who is the founder and president of the Institute for American Values, wrote a book in 2007 called “The Future of Marriage” and also served as an expert witness against the constitutional challenge to California’s Proposition 8.

He wrote an article, which was published in The New York Times on Friday, stating that, “the time for denigrating or stigmatizing same-sex relationships is over.” Blankenhorn went on to say:

“I opposed gay marriage believing that children have the right, insofar as society makes it possible, to know and to be cared for by the two parents who brought them into this world. Whatever one’s definition of marriage, legally recognizing gay and lesbian couples and their children is a victory for basic fairness.”

The National Review notes that David Blankenhorn’s new stance could actually be harder than opposing gay marriage was. The former opponent’s new strategy is”

“Instead of fighting gay marriage, I’d like to help build new coalitions bringing together gays who want to strengthen marriage with straight people who want to do the same.”

He admits that he is not sure if the strategy will work, but that, “I hope to find out.” The Daily Beast reports that Blankenhorn, in explaining his reason for changing sides, stated:

“I had hoped that the gay marriage debate would be mostly about marriage’s relationship to parenthood. But it hasn’t been. Or perhaps it’s fairer to say that I and others have made that argument, and that we have largely failed to persuade. In the mind of today’s public, gay marriage is almost entirely about accepting lesbians and gay men as equal citizens. And to my deep regret, much of the opposition to gay marriage seems to stem, at least in part, from an underlying anti-gay animus. To me, a Southerner by birth whose formative moral experience was the civil rights movement, this fact is profoundly disturbing.”

What do you think about David Blankenhorn switching sides in the same-sex marriage debate?