Stephanie Wang

stephanie.wang@indystar.com

Marriage, as Rep. Jim Lucas sees it, is simply a contract between two people.

So he wants to take the government out of it.

Gone, under his proposal, would be state marriage licenses obtained through county clerks.

Instead, all you would need to legally wed would be a signed contract, witnessed by two other people.

"I'm tired of being beat over the head on marriage issues," said Lucas, a Republican from Seymour. "It basically gets the state out of marriage. It's really that simple."

Lucas sees House Bill 1041 as an all-around win: It maintains equality for both same-sex and opposite-sex couples. It eliminates the risk of a county clerk religiously objecting to issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, like Kim Davis in Kentucky. It preserves religious principles by still allowing people to wed in their churches, while also taking away government's ability to "come into my church," Lucas said.

And, he added, it minimizes government intrusion into people's personal lives.

It would, Lucas said, make marriage simple. Efficient. Less divisive.

"I've seen marriage being used as a hammer on both sides of the fence," Lucas said. "We're taking the hammer away from people."

House Bill 1041 relies on existing Indiana contract law and retains the minimum standards for marriage, such as age limits, which would be enforceable through the courts. Divorces would still happen through the courts.

Marriage, he contends, wouldn't change.

The proposal has been sent to the House Judiciary Committee.

Lucas also filed bills this session to remove license requirements for carrying a handgun and allow guns on college campuses.

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Call Star reporter Stephanie Wang at (317) 444-6184. Follow her on Twitter: @stephaniewang.

Bills would get rid of licensing requirement for handguns, allow firearms at universities