Mixed up on Gay Marriage

For those who care about such things, RedMaryland is once again debating the gay marriage issue and what Maryland conservatives ought to be doing about the move to legalize it in the Old Line State.

For a while now there’s something that’s bothered me about this debate (the debate generally, not this one specifically), and I finally think I’ve put my finger on what it is.

Simply put, what government calls a marriage is not really a Marriage.

That which is really, truly Marriage is a commitment made between the partners and, if relevant, the deity they mutually revere. It is a commitment to be forever united and faithful to the person in question – it’s an acknowledgement that the other has become such a fundamental part of your own identity that there is no possibility of your own wholeness without their presence in your life.

Government marriage doesn’t hold a candle to that. It’s just a piece of paper saying the government agrees to recognize two people as one for certain tax and property ownership purposes and that they mutually have the right to make certain decisions on behalf of the other. In substance, it’s just another form of contract, not any different than a contract forming a joint partnership and government calling it marriage doesn’t make it Marriage anymore than government calling a jar of peanut butter a PB&J sandwich would make it so.

So if all that’s at stake is government limiting a certain subset of contract law to some people, then I see two implications arising:

1. Same-sex marriage isn’t the big deal it’s made out to be, by either side of the debate.
2. Prohibitions on same-sex marriage are an interference with freedom of contract, and if we support free markets than we can’t simultaneously support abridging freedom of contract.

I don’t imagine writing this will have much of any impact on the policy debate being decided in Annapolis, but with the significant difference between marriage and Marriage, I would strongly urge Republicans, both in legislators and activists, to cease their opposition to the same-sex government marriages.