In the late 1950s, Richard Loving (a Caucasian man) and Mildred Jeter (an African American/Native American woman) were married in Washington DC and then moved to Virginia, which prohibited racially mixed marriages. The police raided the Loving's home, charged them a felony and sentenced them to jail for a period of one year (which later was converted to sentence that required them to leave the state). After a series of court rulings, the Supreme Court eventually ruled that laws banning marriage based on race were unconstitutional and could not be infringed by the state.

How is a same-sex marriage different from or similar to an interracial marriage? Should any of these arrangements be condemned because they do not conform to everyone's idea of what a marriage should be?

Opponents of gay marriage predict measurable harm to the family and especially to children. Does empirical evidence support this assertion?