Among other inanities, such as the lie that children need a mother and a father to be healthy as a reason to preserve man-woman marriage, Gallagher also said that just because the polls show that younger people support same-sex marriage isn't reason to "change the definition of marriage." Why? Because they need to listen to the "wisdom of the older generation." You know, some of the folks in that same crowd who opposed desegregation of the schools and inter-racial marriage. That's a good model.
PILGRIM: Let me just bring up for our viewers some public opinion polls because I think they're quite interesting. We have a CNN poll that says gays and lesbians have the constitutional right to get married; 54 percent say no.
Let me contrast this with another Gallup poll that found that 59 percent of 18 to 29 year-olds favor making gay marriages legal. We have a big national debate about this.
This is not an individual sort of private sort of discussion at this point. This is a large, national, interesting debate. What do you think about these two kinds of polls? To me, it suggests that younger people are perhaps more accepting.
WOLF: Well, I think it speaks to a key issue. I'd actually like to take this as a point of departure to pose a question to Maggie, if I could.
PILGRIM: Go right ahead.
WOLF: By conservative estimates, there's about 10 million to 12 million gay people in the United States. No matter what we do in our laws, they're going to be there and they're going to be having families and they're going to be having relationships and they have kids and they have parents and they have brothers and sisters.
And Miss Gallagher has used some very strong language to say what she thinks gay and lesbian couples should not be able to do. I'd like her to tell us what she wants those couples to do. What should those couples do?
PILGRIM: We're almost out of time but I will let you respond. Go ahead.
GALLAGHER: I think that they're free to live as they choose. What they shouldn't do, either gay or straight, is redefine marriage. There is a reason a marriage means a husband and wife. These unions are really special and distinct.
Part of the reason is that children need a mother and father. Whatever you're going to do for gay people, I don't think you should mess with that.
By the way, that Gallup poll you mentioned, 57 -- growing opposition to gay marriage, the highest level since 2005; 57 percent of Americans do not support gay marriage. I don't think we should go to 18 year-olds and ask them to determine the future of marriage. I think the wisdom of the older generations is something we should be listening to right now.
PILGRIM: You know, I have to say that sometimes you get a good bit of wisdom from young people, too. I have to disagree on that one point.
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