While gay marriage has been a hot topic lately, people should focus on the ways same-sex unions would affect families and communities, said Ron Schlittler, director of field and policy at Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays at a debate Thursday.
His opponent, Joshua Baker, policy director of the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, said redefining marriage by allowing same-sex unions could potentially damage our society.
The event, sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Ally Affairs Agency, the University Democrats and the College Republicans of Texas, followed a rally on the West Mall favoring gay marriage.
Karl-Thomas Musselman, co-director of GLBTAAA, said too many people view gay marriage as a threat to the sanctity of marriage.
"There are greater threats to marriage, like a high divorce rate and Britney Spears getting married in Las Vegas," Musselman said. "The greatest threat is a nation that is OK with separate and not equal."
But gay marriage already exists in a private form, so banning gay marriage would not take rights away from homosexuals, said Brian Bodine, chairman of the College Republicans of Texas.
"My view has always been that marriage is a private event," Bodine said. "As long as it's a public institution, it should be limited to a man and a woman."
Baker said a child's natural mother and father are the best suited to be its parents, and reforming the institution of marriage by allowing same-sex unions would negatively affect that.
"Marriage is more than just a legal seal on a relationship," Baker said. "It's creating and raising generations."
However, Schlittler said there is evidence that little difference exists between children raised by gay couples and those raised by straight couples. At least 1 million children in the nation are being raised by gay couples, he said.
Reforming marriage would not cause the institution problems and is in fact needed, he said.
"There are a lot of reasons marriage is in trouble, and gays getting married is not one of them," Schlittler said.
Marriage gives gay couples the legal support needed to take care of one another and a child, he said.
"It's important for children to have two loving and committed adults in their life, whether they're same sex or man and woman," he said. "People are stuck in notions of gender roles."
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