Will acceptance make gay activists more conventional?

By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Aug 08, 2003

In an interesting Wall Street Journal op-ed (available for now only to WSJ subscribers, unfortunately), Melik Kaylan questions the argument put forward most notably by Andrew Sullivan: that public acceptance of same-sex "marriage" will help homosexuals to curb their promiscuity and became solid citizens like everyone else. Kalyan observes: "Surprisingly, considering that it comes from the political right, the argument is a pure piece of social engineering advocacy, a species of affirmative action as applied to sexual preference."

Good point. Where is the evidence that public acceptance of a particular form of behavior will cause a decrease in the more extreme forms of the same behavior?

Sullivan-- who is a thoughtful conservative on most issues other than homosexuality-- is making the argument that a change in the laws would produce a change in human behavior. Ordinarily, such claims are rightly recognized as the products of utopian liberalism.