Defining Marriage

Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR), is catching some flak from liberal blogs and LGBT activists for his admittedly confusing recent comments linking his thoughts on same-sex marriage to late 19th century pro- (or per- ?) secution of Mormon polygamy. He voted for the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would define marriage as one man and one woman for federal purposes and ( needlessly ) clarify that anti-SSM states would not have to recognize other states’ same-sex marriages. Part of his motivation, he says here , was concern that when the government gets involved with tinkering with the definition of marriage, persecution follows. (At least I think that’s what he’s saying.) The confusing part is that to many people, voting for the FMA amounts to performing the very persecution he’s worried about. And of course many have taken offense to his seeming equation between polygamy and same-sex marriage: “Talking about polyga...