The most important lesson to take from the events of the last twenty-four hours is that passage of legislation legalizing same-sex marriage will not lead to moral decay and the destabilization of all we hold dear in our society.

You’re thinking of hockey.

Last night, after the Boston Bruins won game seven of the NHL Stanley Cup Series to take home their first championship in nearly forty years, the fans of Vancouver reacted…poorly. Rioters, some of whom took the street after the game and many others who were already there to attend the watch party outside Rogers Arena, flipped over cars and set multiple fires while the Vancouver police tried desperately to contain the carnage.

My friend Joe was covering the events in Vancouver for NBC’s Pro Hockey Talk and thankfully made it out alive. He told me that CTV (the largest privately owned broadcast network in Canada) was insinuating the riots were encouraged by the Black Bloc, the same anarchist group that created problems for police and security forces during the Olympic Games, though as of this writing it still appears that the perpetrators were primarily angry hockey fans.

Regardless, it got me to thinking about gay marriage. No, really, it did.

Admittedly, a parallel could not be drawn without the timing of the two events, but bear with me.

Detractors of same-sex marriage often cite a degradation of society if same-sex marriage is legalized. It saddens me that people can’t get over environmentally taught prejudices to see past such a ludicrous notion, especially when society needs nothing less than a game played by grown men on ice skates – one whose result will be rendered moot in the Fall when a new season begins and all records, numbers, and accomplishments are reset to zero – to completely fall apart.

I kid, of course, but only to show a point: of all the things that could go wrong in this world and all the things we should be afraid of, the last of them should be love, no matter what form it takes.

The existence of hockey itself didn’t create the violence that occurred in Vancouver, and no politician would deign to blame the game itself and call for its banishment. Partially because hockey is a popular and accepted sport, but also because it’s a ridiculous suggestion. Yet some people like State Senator Ruben Diaz (who the last several days has been stomping his feet like a child around Albany and generally acting like a complete imbecile) put forth an even flimsier argument that suggests that somehow the marriage of the most devoted couples I know – Alan and Andy, Jenn and Nikki, and others – will make otherwise straight kids turn gay and create a moral decay that will send us into a tailspin.

It’s ludicrous, embarrassing, and would be amusing if loving couples weren’t being denied their civil rights.