No Experts Here

Utah's Supreme Court filing on gay marriage contained an unusually frank admission about the depth of thought that the state government put into its position. When discussing the conclusions of professional groups who disagree with its arguments, Utah stated "we are not ruled by experts."

Seldom has a phrase done more to encapsulate a group's position than this phrase does. Utah's government may as well have stated, "don't confuse us with the facts, our mind is made up."

Arguments in court confirm that this is a correct reading of the state government's indifference to what serious study of the questions may indicate. On Dec 4, Judge Shelby asked whether same-sex marriage was of “any relevance at all” to the state's stated desire to promote heterosexual marriage. Stanford E. Purser from the state Attorney General's office said, “It may end up that there is no difference. It may end up that there is. We just simply don’t know.”