Mercartor.net has posted an interview in which Maggie Gallagher explains why supporters of an authentic understanding of marriage should take heart.

Asked by Rod Dreher why she is so positive about protecting marriage against efforts by homosexual activists to redefine its meaning, Gallagher cites Vaclav Havel’s quote about the sudden collapse of the seemingly invincible Soviet empire.

Said Gallagher, “‘Truth and love will prevail over lies and hate.’ On that basis Havel took on the Soviet empire. Where is that invincible empire now?”

Gallagher also cites a more recent precedent — the victory of pro-marriage forces in last fall’s Proposition 8 ballot measure in California. Proposition 8 amended the state constitution to define marriage as only a one-man, one-woman institution.

“I was told — by good people who agree with me, really smart people too — that California was impossible; you can’t raise the money; nobody cares about marriage; if you get it on the ballot, we’ll lose anyway because there’s a generational shift,” said Gallagher, who is the president of the National Organization for Marriage.

Gallagher makes a number of other solid points in her short interview with Dreher and concludes with this: “I don’t have time for pessimism. The stakes are too high.”