David Moats is the editorial page editor of the Rutland Herald, where he won the Pulitzer Prize for his series of editorials in support of same-sex unions. Most recently, he is the author of Civil Wars: The Battle for Gay Marriage (Harcourt, 2004).
One by one they came before the microphone, in bulky sweaters, down vests, business suits, blue jeans, their voices quaking with anger or fear. It was wrong, they said, and they tried to give the word powerful meaning, as if speaking it...