Mainline Homophobes Move to the Fringe
What if they gave a Supreme Court case and no one showed up?
So, the Supremes are to consider California's Prop 8 and part of DOMA next month. Will there be anything substantial and sensible to consider? "Standing" is a big legal issue, because no one wants to defend these dinosaurs anymore. The arguments that anti-gay proponents make in favor of restricting marriage to mixed-gender couples get more bizarre by the day–and they didn't start out in such a good place.
And, as this article points out, the defenders are looking increasingly like from-the-fringe crackpots, all dressed up in their homophobic finery with no place to go:
To see how marginalized the on-the-ground groups trying to block gay marriage have become, you have to peruse the amicus briefs filed by organizations and individuals supporting Cooper and Clement. There are no bar associations, no professional associations, no national civil rights groups, no corporate business voices, and no big prestigious firms that have written the briefs. Some amici are formidable: the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Attorneys General of 17 states, for example. But most of the intellectual, professional and cultural elites have switched sides.
[Nan Hunter, "Is the Supreme Court Argument Over Gay Marriage Really All About Straight People?", The Nation, 7 February 2013.]