Can same-sex marriage fulfill a “family-first” moral obligation?
From personal experience, I don’t know. What if, when I was in my twenties, I had learned (and this is subjunctive!) that same-sex marriage would be supported but that, to be recognized as a grown-up, I would be expected to remain sexually interested in one man, and put supporting his needs above all of my own ambitions, for a whole life? Could I have? I know of gay male couples who have. I might have reconsidered heterosexuality (no “reparative therapy,” thought) but I might well have wound up with divorce and loose children. Should the state become involved if indeed there is such an obligation? Certainly there are a lot of mechanisms possible. Severely tax unmarried adults (Mussolini taxed bachelors heavily), bring back and mandate the “family wage,” paid parental leave, child-friendly censorship of the media and commercial Internet sites, and so on. Public policy could severely penalize singletons like me. Well, I hope not! Would a libertarian polity resolve to a family-friendly or
