Quoted in Al-Jazeera on the conservative case for gay marriage

Reporter Sam Bollier of Al-Jazeera, the worldwide Arabic news service, surveys the ballot fights on same-sex marriage and is kind enough to quote me:

…The conservative case

Walter Olson, who runs Maryland for All Families, a group of conservatives and libertarians who support same-sex marriage, would agree with [Austin] Nimocks that marriage has social benefits. When people are married, they “tend to be more productive, they tend to stick with their jobs, they tend to take better care of their health, [and are] more likely to [make] investments in their community as homeowners”, he told Al Jazeera.

He believes there are persuasive conservative arguments to be made in favour of gay marriage. For instance, libertarian conservatives believe that government is “there to protect individual rights”, he said, and that people “should be free to do anything” as long as it does not harm others.

And conservatives who fear rapid social change, he argued, could drop their opposition after noticing that gay marriage hasn’t had negative effects in the six states that currently permit it.