Another battle for marriage equality.

Like so many couples, this couple just wanted to get married. But when they showed up at the local justice of the peace he refused to perform the ceremony. His reasons is all too familiar.

First, he said, he wants everyone to understand, he's not bigoted. Nope, they never are, are they? He just said that this sort of relationship is just not proper—he doesn't believe in it himself. But, he's not prejudiced and doesn't like people saying he is.

Second, it really is about the children. You know children growing up in such atypical family homes have a hard time in life. And we must put the children first. He told the press: "My main concern is for the children." They aren't readily accepted by other people in the community.

It all sounds hauntingly familiar. These are the same arguments used by the Prop 8 folks wanting to ban marriage equality. They insist they aren't bigots , they just don't believe in this type of marriage, and, all they are doing is thinking about the children.

The couple in question is a man and woman. The local justice of the peace refused to marry them because she's white and he's black. This took place in Hammond, Louisiana—you knew it was going to be somewhere like that, didn't you?

Keith Bardwell is the local justice of the peace and refuses to perform marriages for interracial couples—in violation of the law. He insists he is not bigoted and that he is only thinking of the children. He sounds like Maggie Gallagher and others of her ilk.

What I appreciate about Bardwell's arguments is that by making them he shows them up for what they are—senseless. Yet lots of people will pooh-pooh the arguments when it applies to interracial couples but sudden spout the same rot when it is a same-sex couple.