Gay marriage's right-wing brigade

David Brooks
Conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks is well-known for his light-hearted romps through the suburbs in his books of pop anthropology like Bobos in Paradise. But his 2003 essay calling for conservatives to support gay marriage was very serious. In a culture that values fleeting pleasure over long-term fidelity, Brooks argued, as many people as possible should be encouraged to seek the stability and shared sacrifice of wedded bliss. “The conservative course is not to banish gay people from making such commitments,” Brooks writes. “It is to expect that they make such commitments. We shouldn’t just allow gay marriage. We should insist on gay marriage.”