Same-sex marriage showdown

This past Sunday, the National Organization for Marriage continued its Summer for Marriage Tour 2010, holding a rally at the State House in Providence, R.I.

NOM's goal is to protect marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The purpose of the rallies being held across the country this summer is to encourage people to vote for candidates in November who support that principle.

By all accounts, Sunday's rally turned very ugly, with Capitol police requiring backup from state troopers as protestors turned up in force.

According to NOM President Brian Brown, about 150 same-sex marriage supporters "came right into our crowd . . . getting in people's faces and shouting at our marriage supporters. As Father Codega [representing the Roman Catholic diocese of Providence] was trying to speak, they got up behind him on the steps, shouting him down. At one point when I was at the microphone, I was physically surrounded by three people trying to shout me down as Capitol police did nothing. These activists simply embarrassed themselves and their cause today. Mocking religion. Mocking children. I mean, what kind of adult goes up to a 7-year-old child and sneers, 'Mommy raising you to be a good little bigot?'"

NOM had a permit granting them the right to speak and assemble. Brown said the police failed to adequately protect that right by not keeping the protesters in the nearby area designated for them, also by state permit.

Brown wrote on NOM's website that he'd never seen anything like it: "The hatred was palpable."

Seeing photos and watching a short video clip from the rally (see below), I wondered why the right to marry is so critical to these protesters and others across the country. Like it or not, homosexuality has certainly come out of the closet. It's become part of the culture. Gay couples are depicted in movies and on television shows. Homosexuality is commonly taught as a neutral lifestyle choice in public school sex ed programs. Is marriage---as opposed to civil unions---really that important to these protesters? Or is it the belief---long-held by traditional Christians and Jews---that the practice of homosexuality is wrong that the protesters really want to shout down?