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Argument: Heterosexual couples often "recklessly procreate"; gay adoption is deliberate
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In the New York supreme court's July, 2006 ruling upholding NY's legislation banning gay marriage, it, according to the NYTimes 7/14/06, "assert[ed] a startling rationale for prohibiting same-sex marriage — that straight couples may be less stable parents than their gay counterparts and consequently require the benefits of marriage to assist them... [The court cited the] 'reckless procreation' rationale. 'Heterosexual intercourse,' the plurality opinion stated, 'has a natural tendency to lead to the birth of children; homosexual intercourse does not.' Gays become parents, the opinion said, in a variety of ways, including adoption and artificial insemination, 'but they do not become parents as a result of accident or impulse.' Consequently, 'the Legislature could find that unstable relationships between people of the opposite sex present a greater danger that children will be born into or grow up in unstable homes than is the case with same-sex couples.'" But the court actually used this argument to strengthen support for the New York ban on gay marriage - "..To shore up those rickety heterosexual arrangements, 'the Legislature could rationally offer the benefits of marriage to opposite-sex couples only.'" Nevertheless, the "reckless procreation" rationale is sometimes used to defend the abilities of gay parents within the context of allowing them to marry.