October 26, 2012 2:20PM # Same-Sex Marriage: Some Cato Resources By [Walter Olson](https://www.cato.org/people/walter-olson) --- SHARE Four states will consider gay-marriage measures on Nov. 6. Voters in Maine (Question 1), Maryland (Question 6), and Washington (Referendum 74) will decide whether to approve same-sex marriage laws, while Minnesota voters will vote on a constitutional amendment that would ban such recognition. Cato as an institution takes no position on state ballot initiatives, but it has devoted a lot of attention to the underlying issues. In May of last year (see the video below), we hosted a [panel discussion](https://www.cato.org/event.php?eventid=8015) with the co-counsels of the case challenging California’s Prop 8, Theodore (“no relation”) Olson and David Boies, and co-plaintiffs John Podesta and Robert Levy (who is also Cato’s chairman). Below the jump are some other contributions by Catoites. ♦ Cato Vice President David Boaz has written about the ongoing-for-centuries process by which marriage has been “[redefined](https://www.cato.org/krauthammer-misreads-history/)” into something very different from its premodern form, on the steady advance of support for gay marriage in [opinion polls](https://www.cato.org/progress-toward-marriage-equality/), and on how the resulting politics of the issue has turned [unfavorable for the national Republican Party](https://www.cato.org/gay-marriage-in-the-swing-states/). ♦ This summer, Cato Publications Director David Lampo published *A Fundamental Freedom: Why Republicans, Conservatives, and Libertarians Should Support Gay Rights* (Rowman & Littlefield), available [here](http://www.amazon.com/Fundamental-Freedom-Republicans-Conservatives-Libertarians/dp/1442215712). He appeared at a Cato forum to discuss the book with columnist Michael Barone and Cato’s John Samples. Here’s the video: David’s other media appearances have included [Rea​son​.tv](https://www.cato.org/multimedia/video-highlights/david-lampo-discusses-gop-embracing-gay-rights-reason-tv) and Cato’s [daily podcast](https://www.cato.org/multimedia/daily-podcast/gay-rights-fundamental-freedom), and he’s written op-eds for the [*Los Angeles Times*](https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/is-gop-deeply-antigay-hardly) and [Baltimore *Sun*](http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2012-10-16/news/bs-ed-gop-marriage-20121016_1_marriage-equality-equal-rights-heterosexual-couples). ♦ [Ilya Shapiro](https://www.cato.org/californias-gay-marriage-ban-lacks-a-rational-basis/) and [Robert Levy](https://www.cato.org/gay-marriage-still-has-an-uphill-climb/) reacted to the federal court decisions holding California’s Prop 8 invalid ♦ Jason Kuznicki [discussed](https://www.cato.org/marriage-against-the-state/) his Cato [Policy Analysis](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=12699), “Marriage against the State: Toward a New View of Civil Marriage.” ♦ In March, when the legislature in my own state of Maryland acted to recognize same-sex marriage, I [explained why](https://www.cato.org/same-sex-marriage-wont-harm-maryland-families/) I put little stock in arguments warning of family disintegration, since statistics indicate that adoption of these laws “neither causes nor correlates with divorce or out-of-wedlock birth rates above Western norms.” I’ve also written about both the [religious-accommodation angle](http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2011/06/30/an_amen_for_albany_258449.html) and the importance of keeping law [separate from church doctrine](http://www.gazette.net/article/20120830/OPINION/708309835/1014/differing-beliefs&template=gazette). ##### Related Tags [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).