by Commonweal

About the author: Commonweal is a biweekly Catholic magazine.

There is every likelihood that Hawaii's Supreme Court will soon overturn that state's prohibition on same-sex marriage. [A Hawaiian trial court legalized same-sex marriages in December 1996.] The court's reasoning will be simple enough: Hawaii's constitution forbids discrimination on the basis of sex, and for the state to deny the benefits of marriage to same-sex couples without demonstrating a "compelling state interest" does precisely that. Should Hawaii license same-sex marriage, other states may be bound to recognize those marriages under the Full Faith and Credit clause of the Constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court, it seems certain, will eventually be asked to rule on the constitutionality of the heterosexual exclusivity of marriage.

For the state to license same-sex unions will entail a fundamental reappraisal of the nature of...