Time to Get Government Out of the Marriage Business

The consensus is that the future is already written on the gay marriage issue. We know how things are going to turn out, and we're in the final act, moving toward the inevitable. The opinion has shifted only in one direction, and turning that tide seems as unrealistic as gun-control proponents convincing states to repeal shall-issue carry laws. Views on gay marriage have changed so much that Obama needs to lie less and less about his actual opinion of it, and it's well-known that Republicans will be doomed with the next generation if they continue to oppose it. Plus, everyone is certain that one day soon, all of us who don't have a NoH8 picture with tape over our mouths will hang our heads in shame for being on the wrong side in the big civil-rights battle of our generation. And you know that when everyone is sure of how the future will turn out, that's exactly what will happen.

Still, I'm conservative, and it's my job when everyone is so set on a specific direction to stand athwart history yelling, "Mop!" (you're more likely to stop history if you confuse it), so here I go: This is all incredibly asinine. And I'm not talking from a religious perspective; I'm talking from a libertarian perspective -- and though I usually identify as conservative, I tend toward the libertarian perspective unless a) I have a really compelling reason or b) I'm having a bad day and want the government to punish anyone who disagrees with me. And from that viewpoint, this is a really stupid debate, and I don't understand how everyone else doesn’t see this.

I don't say this lightly, as I know this issue means a lot more to some people than it does to me. "The state is standing in the way of people's love!" they say, and I don’t mean to be clichéd, but we're not talking about love here -- we're talking about marriage. And while so many see this as a big civil-rights issue, there are no rights involved at all. Wanting legally sanctioned marriage is asking the state to do something for you, and rights, luckily, don't involve the state having to do anything, or we'd all be screwed.

Let's take a moment to look at what marriage actually is. Is it just a legal agreement between two people enforced by the state, or is it something else? The fact that civil unions aren't seen as equivalent suggests that most see it as something else. And if it's something other than some legal agreements, that leads to the obvious question: Why the hell is the state involved in it?

Because here is what marriage is in America and why this issue has caused so much contention: It's a religious custom written into law. Specifically, it's a Christian religious custom written into law (that's why plural marriages have never been legal in the U.S.). Sure, marriage exists in every culture, and even the secular engage in it, but at its heart it is a very religious institution. And opponents of gay marriage rightly see changing the definition of marriage from the union of one man and one woman to be the state coming in and altering religious tenets. It's like if the state started to dictate what is considered a proper baptism. It’s a clear violation of the First Amendment to have the state come in and just start changing things.

But while I consider what gay marriage proponents are trying to do to be a wrong remedy, it's easy to see why they're winning the argument, as the opponents of gay marriage don't have a better argument for trying to keep the status quo. For one, homosexuals rightly get a lot of sympathy for how horribly they've been treated throughout the years, and opposition to gay marriage is seen as an extension of this treatment. Also, they and their supporters correctly see an injustice here, as there are special religious privileges written into law.