by David Orland

About the author: David Orland is a columnist for Boundless, the webzine of Focus on the Family, a conservative Christian organization.

If you've ever tried to discuss gay unions with someone who supports them, you know how difficult this can be. One is instantly branded a homophobe, a Christian reactionary, a right wing yokel and there the conversation ends, at least as far as your interlocutor is concerned. Unfortunately, such conversations perfectly mirror the national conversation about same-sex unions; they are onesided and deaf.

My first run-in with the emerging orthodoxy regarding gay unions—often referred to by its euphemism, "domestic partnership"—occurred about two years ago [in 1998]. Reading the papers over a pot of coffee one Sunday afternoon with my then girlfriend, I came across an editorial...