I have tried to answer David Frum’s questions about states’ rights and civil marriage, but he has not answered mine. Yesterday, he claimed that Eliot Spitzer’s decision that, under current law, New York state would happily recognize same-sex marriages from another state, vindicated his argument. That argument is as follows:
In other words, the promise that states will not have same-sex marriage forced upon them against their will will soon be falsified in New York – and soon in many other states as well.
Sorry, but unproven. Nothing is being forced on New York State. If New Yorkers wanted to pass a law, like 38 other states, that would refuse to recognize Massachusetts’ marriages, they could easily do so. But they haven’t. State autonomy means that states not only can refuse to recognize another state’s marriages, but that they can agree to recognize them as well. Liberal states might well decide to recognize Massachusetts’ marriages. That’s not a violation of the principle I laid out at all. Frum doesn’t seem to have the faintest grasp of the legal principles involved here. He also refuses to answer my simple question: which of the 1,049 civil and legal protections that he enjoys with his wife would he deign to grant me and my partner? Does he even support civil unions? We know exactly what he is against: civil marriages for people unlike him. But what, exactly, is he for? I ask a second time.
The Dish 