And the legal recognition and protection of marriage by the state is not about protecting each person's right to find affection but to bring children into the world and to give them a stable unit in which to develop.
This statement is the problem with that entire arguement, because it is just plain false. There is a lot of marriage law related to children, but if that were the purpose of the institution, most gay couples wouldn't care about getting married.
Civil marriage is an economic institution, not a procreative one. The purpose of civil marriage is to legally recognize the members of a committed union as a single legal and economic unit.
You don't need a marriage license to have sex with your partner, bear children, and raise them in a stable environment. You don't need a marriage license to be recognized as a single social unit by your family, friends, and church.
You *do* need a marriage license to file joint taxes, visit them in the hospital without paperwork, share health insurance, and so on.
Look at history, and you will see that traditional marriage is primarily about money and property, and only secondarily about children, mostly because of their economic implications. Modern marriage is turning into something that's about family, and that's great. Now the bigots like Lisa just need to learn to cope with the fact that that includes families that are different.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2006-07-19 04:02 am (UTC)This statement is the problem with that entire arguement, because it is just plain false. There is a lot of marriage law related to children, but if that were the purpose of the institution, most gay couples wouldn't care about getting married.
Civil marriage is an economic institution, not a procreative one. The purpose of civil marriage is to legally recognize the members of a committed union as a single legal and economic unit.
You don't need a marriage license to have sex with your partner, bear children, and raise them in a stable environment. You don't need a marriage license to be recognized as a single social unit by your family, friends, and church.
You *do* need a marriage license to file joint taxes, visit them in the hospital without paperwork, share health insurance, and so on.
Look at history, and you will see that traditional marriage is primarily about money and property, and only secondarily about children, mostly because of their economic implications. Modern marriage is turning into something that's about family, and that's great. Now the bigots like Lisa just need to learn to cope with the fact that that includes families that are different.