On the nature of marriage

[mithriltabby]

obsessivewoman and I started dating in late 1994; we bought a house together in 1998, got a couple of Maine Coon kittens in 2000, and finally got around to formalizing our relationship in 2003. At the time, my friend and groomsman the_weregamer, a devout Catholic, remarked that in his view, the spiritual bond was already there and this really was just a formality.

At no point along this entire timespan could gay marriage have ever posed a threat to our relationship. My marriage doesn’t need “protection”; if anything, having more marriages out there provides more protection for my own marriage.

If I were able to set policy on this issue, I’d invoke the First Amendment and declare that government has no business defining “marriage” and it was gender-neutral civil unions for everyone, with all of the rights and responsibilities that were previously in the package with the M-word. But when I’m given a choice between legalizing gay marriage and outlawing it, I come down on the side of legalizing it, and that’s why I voted no on Proposition 8.