I told my brother yesterday that I was not interested in what people should or shouldn't do when it came to making laws about gay marriage, I was more interested in what we do do when we make laws. I'm not sure I can completely stand by the fact that I am not interested in should ever although increasingly less so, but in this case, I think it is the best way to go.
I think we have to make laws based on empirical evidence. We can't make laws based on what people like and dislike. We can't make laws based on what religion says is or is not okay. When we start going down this road, I think we get to having more problems. We have to look empirically at the impact of making a law or withholding someone's request. We can't just say, We don't want gay marriage because a majority of us don't want gays to marry.
In describing my research to one of my friends, they asked whether or not I thought it was a good thing that people use metaphor to create social roles. I said that whether or not it's a good thing isn't really on my radar. I'm interested in describing it.