To the Editor:

In her recent article “The truth about gay marriage,” Amy Knopnarbutis undertook a spirited critique of what she apparently understands to be the position held by defenders of traditional marriage. Unfortunately, the author missed the central policy rationale of those who argue that marriage should legally be confined to a union between a single man and a single woman. Traditional marriage is important to the community because repeated studies have confirmed that it is within this environment that children best develop into flourishing human beings and productive citizens. Severing the link between unity and procreation, which homosexual “marriage” necessarily does, takes away the public reasons that undergird the institution.