Whats the big deal about gay marriage? Why do we have marriage laws at all?
Dear Cecil: The continuing controversy over gay marriage has gotten me thinking about regular old marriage. Why do we have marriage laws at all? What business is it of the government who I shack up with? And why do gays want to get entangled in an institution that, judging from the example of Murphy Brown et al, many heterosexuals would just as soon dispense with? — SWM looking to stay that way, Chicago Good point. Gay men and lesbians are often portrayed as subverting the social order. But what are they trying to do? Join the military! Get married! Fix up the house and raise kids! In short, build the kind of world the religious right dreams of, except that the basic social unit is a happily married couple of the same sex. No one disputes that the original purpose of the marriage laws was to facilitate procreation. But is this objective obsolete? Lots of people think so. “The present law of marriage is based on an outmoded appreciation of marriage as it operates in present-day society,
