The Constitution: In Need of Amendment.(call for consitutional amendment defining marriage)(Brief Article)

For all the progress that homosexuals have made in public opinion, "gay marriage" remains deeply unpopular. In 1996, the federal Defense of Marriage Act-defining marriage as a union of a man and a woman for purposes of federal law, and allowing states not to recognize gay marriages formed in other states-passed the House with 342 votes and the Senate with 85. Polls find solid majorities against same-sex marriage. Even in socially liberal California, a ballot initiative to block gay marriage passed with 61 percent of the vote last year.

Yet gay marriage may be on its way whatever the people think. Gay activists are working through the courts to force gay marriage on an unwilling public. Their game plan is perfectly clear: Get a court somewhere, anywhere-in Hawaii, in Vermont, wherever they can win-to impose gay marriage. Then use courts to force other states to recognize that state's same-sex marriages. Then get states that recognize out-of- state gay marriages to start letting such marriages be formed in-state.

Politicians seeking to avoid controversy-including, notably, Dick Cheney in last year's vice-presidential debate-have pretended that whether gays should be allowed to ...