Michael Foust writes:

In remarkably different court filings that highlight America's cultural divide on marriage's definition, the U.S. House and the Obama Justice Department have come to opposite conclusions as to whether children need a mother and a father in the home.

At issue is the Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 law which defines marriage in federal law as between a man and a woman and gives states the option of not recognizing another state's gay "marriages."

In its legal briefs arguing that the law should be upheld, the legal team hired by the U.S. House says DOMA, as it's often called, is naturally tied to procreation and children benefit from having both a mother and father in the home. The Justice Department has discounted the procreation argument and argued that the gender of parents does not matter.