So I read up on my congressman's opinions on marriage. He thinks the government should stay out of marriage, period. For anyone. Churches can marry whomever they please. Government should not recognize marriage. It's an interesting idea, but I think the benefits and responsibilities of marriage are just too ingrained in our society for this to work. Thoughts? Personally I think you should be able to define your family legally in any way you choose. Straight, gay, polygamous...whatever. I guess people might abuse it for marriage benefits, taxes or whatever, but there are responsibilities as well. I haven't thought about this a lot so people can go ahead and shoot holes in it! I'd be interested to hear what people think.
You got it right the first time. People tend to get married and then the benefits make their lives easier for doing so. But because the government must be a secular organization and see marriage as a legal status, it must treat it as it does employment. And every job anywhere (in the US at least) makes a huge stink about being an "equal opportunity employer" and avoiding if not actively doing the opposite of negative discrimination by requiring particular gender/ethnic ratios. (<That practice is also crap, but what are you gonna do. ) Polygamy treads awfully thin ice though. Some polyamorous relationships are legitimate, but there exists a huge possibility here for abuse and I'm not sure that level of risk is acceptable in the pursuit of ultimate marriage equality.
