In what ways would same-sex marriages be the same as or different from heterosexual marriages? Answer: It’s nobody’s business.

Yet the matter was explored at length in court this week by an expert for the plaintiffs — the pro-gay-marriage group challenging Proposition 8. Homosexual couples are much the same as heterosexual couples, Letitia Peplau, a UCLA professor of social psychology, testified. They form relationships in which the closeness and stability measure as high.

We’re sorry the topic even came up. Not because we believe there is necessarily anything different about same-sex relationships, but because it doesn’t matter if there is. Same-sex couples shouldn’t have to prove that their marriages would be as “normal” as those of heterosexuals or meet some kind of artificial bar — a bar that many heterosexual couples fall short of — for an ideal marriage.

This strikes at the heart of what’s wrong with denying marital status to gay and lesbian couples. Somehow, society — and in this case, a federal judge — are being put in the position of deciding whether these unions are “good enough” to earn the legal and social status of marriage. We don’t judge these issues for heterosexual marriages.

Read the rest of the LA Times editorial here.