While there’s lot of talk about a constitutional amendment to protect the definition of marriage, when we see jurisdiction after jurisdiction pass laws that legalize same-sex unions I have to ask what the point of the amendment is. The linked article talks about how California’s new law signed by an opportunistic, pandering Gray Davis sets up same-sex unions that exactly the same as marriage in everything but name. So what’s the difference? Why should we protect the “name” of marriage when we’re giving away the substance?