1. How did gay rights advocates react to yesterday's defeat of a bill proposed to legalize same-sex marriage in New Jersey?

2. Why did the New Jersey Legislature legalize civil unions for gay couples in 2006?

3. a) In which state did voters recently overturn a law that would have legalized same-sex marriage?
b) The state Senate of which state voted against legalizing same-sex marriage last month?

4. a) List the states that have legalized same-sex marriage.
b) How many states have added defense of traditional marriage amendments to their constitutions? (see "Background" below for the answer.)

5. Why were gay rights advocates pushing for the same-sex marriage bill to be voted on before January 10?

6. Only one Republican, Sen. Bill Baroni of Hamilton, was among the 14 senators who voted for the bill to legalize same-sex marriage. Why did he vote against the stand the Republican party has taken on this issue?

7. What reasons do supporters of traditional marriage give for their viewpoint?

8. Why do you think senators who were thought to be 'on the fence' about their vote didn't participate in any of the debate over the issue, and five senators then did not even cast votes?

9. We hear a lot in the news about equal rights for homosexual couples, and how it is discriminatory, hateful and unfair to prohibit two people who love each other from getting married.  We don't hear as much about the reasons people have for supporting traditional marriage.  In a response to an article about the vote in the Wall Street Journal, one reader wrote the following:

"The real question is: does society have a right to define what its core institution will be? No civilization throughout history (at least one that's thrived) has been able to survive without a strong nuclear family. To say otherwise is simply revisionism -- while one can imagine why this need not be so, it as a matter of fact has never been so. Rather than take the libertarian view - what people choose to do of their own volition is between themselves - and acknowledge that society has a right to preserve nuclear families via special privileges, the "gay rights" movement proposes full equality of something that is contrary to any civilization's survival. In a post-modern age, political correctness and moral relativism blind many from recognizing objective truths by denying their very existance. Yet, by definition, no union can be deemed "special" if it is simply like any other arrangement. For that matter, polygomy or even, in the European sense, tri-marriages, have no basis for unequal treatment. We can evade reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality."

a) Do you agree with this reader's opinion? Explain your answer.
b) Ask a parent the same question.