Frank Schubert, a prominent supporter of California’s Proposition 8, recently wrote an opinion piece for the National Review arguing that gay marriage and conservatism are mutually exclusive. Certainly many conservatives narrowly define marriage as a union between one man and one woman. But marriage also entails other core conservative values such as monogamy and the idea of the nuclear family. In this light, can it really be argued that the two are mutually exclusive?

As evidence, Schubert cites a survey conducted by Kellyanne Conway, which found that 86 percent of those who identify as Republicans are in support of traditional marriage and 87 percent of those who identify as conservatives also support traditional marriage.

These statistics, however, merely show that most Republicans and conservatives do not support gay marriage. Even the proponents of gay marriage agree with Schubert on this point — that gay marriage and conservatism are incompatible. They argue that extending marriage access to the gay community would be a way of secularizing or liberalizing the concept of marriage.

But there is a competing effect here: since more people would be able to marry, more people would enter into what is an inherently conservative institution. Marriage is a deeply rooted tradition.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, in yesterday’s oral arguments on Hollingsworth v. Perry, raised this issue: “The one thing that the parties in this case seem to agree on is that marriage is very important. It’s thought to be a fundamental building block of society and its preservation essential for the preservation of society. Traditional marriage has been around for thousands of years. Same-sex marriage is very new.”

Although gay marriage would indeed add a new component to the tradition — as Justice Alito notes — many of the traditional values would be preserved. Marriage necessitates an emphasis on family, stability and an implication of monogamy, all of which are strongly underscored in Western culture. These characteristics are also directly linked to Judeo-Christian theology. The contractual component of marriage serves to reinforce these ideas through a legal framework. If the Supreme Court rules Proposition 8 unconstitutional, the core traditions of marriage will largely remain unaltered— rather, they will be extended to a wider populace. Therefore, contrary to popular belief, gay marriage is consistent with conservative ideology.