LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY hummingwolf)

From the New York Times Magazine: What's Their Real Problem With Gay Marriage? (It's the Gay Part)

In the words of Gary Bauer, president of American Values -- one of what is now a total of 61 organizations under the Arlington Group banner, with a combined membership of 60 million -- gay marriage is ''the new abortion.'' He meant that, as with abortion, conservatives see gay marriage as a culture-altering change being implemented by judicial fiat. But gay marriage is also the new abortion in that it is for groups like Bauer's a base-energizing and fund-raising issue of tremendous power.

Long article I haven't had the chance to read through yet, but it looks interesting so far.

And on the international front: Spanish protest gay marriage

Hundreds of thousands of people led by 20 Roman Catholic bishops and conservative opposition leaders clogged downtown Madrid on Saturday in a demonstration against the Socialist government's bill to legalize gay marriage and permit gay couples to adopt children....

[Fr. Jose Ramon] Velasco compared the bill to the beginnings of Nazi Germany in the 1930s.

"Back then the majority of people also backed Hitler just like the majority back this law," he said. "I'm serious, give it time and it will destroy the moral fiber of Spain and the West."

In all honesty, I do have some sympathy for people who are upset that something they consider a sacred institution is being legally redefined. (I tend to think the state should define some sort of civil union for anyone regardless of gender and leave the word "marriage" for religious and general cultural use. But I recognize that that's just me.) But I don't have even the slightest bit of sympathy for people who'd compare gay marriage to the rise of the Nazis.