

With the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear arguments over states’ same-sex marriage laws, jubilation ensued on the political Left and outrage on the Right, but, from a Constitutional perspective, the fight is pointless for both sides – and both sides are wrong.

Clearly, the United States Constitution does not grant the federal government the right to create a legal definition of marriage; thus, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996 and strongly supported by Republicans and Conservatives, is completely unconstitutional.

Given that the federal government has no authority to define marriage, that authority is left to the states. This is the level at which the same-sex marriage fight has been conducted. On the one side, Conservatives who say that they support the Constitution, but want to pass laws restricting who can and cannot marry and, on the other side, a rabidly intolerant cadre of gay activists and their ‘Liberal’ supporters who have proven themselves hell-bent on destroying the lives of anyone who dares to disagree with them.

Marriage, however, is essentially a civil contract; a private bond between two people. It was not created by the church, anymore than it was created by the State. The question everyone should be asking, therefore, is why we are fighting over the legal or religious standard of marriage at all?

The proper solution; the most practical solution, the result of which would be a win for everybody, is to completely dispense with the idea that marriage – be it between one man and one woman or a same-sex marriage – should have any legal recognition whatsoever.

Why, in a free society, should any couple require a license to be married? Why does an already farcical tax-code need to treat a married person different from a single one? Why does one side believe that their religious beliefs give them the right to define marriage for everyone and why does the other side think it is right to abuse, harass and persecute anyone whose religious convictions prevent them from approving of certain relationships?

At a time when all Americans have far more important issues with which to concern themselves, why are people bickering about an institution that is neither the State’s, nor the church’s, to define and regulate?

The message to those who oppose same-sex marriage is simple: Same-sex marriage is here, it’s queer, get used to it. What moral right do you have to deny others their choice of life-partner?

The message to the vindictive stormtroopers within the LGBT community is equally fundamental: Whilst you should have every right to your chosen relationships, you cannot, and do not, have the right to force everyone else to accept them. If tolerance and diversity are values that you truly hold, you will have to accept that not everyone thinks the way you do. Human beings, along with the overwhelming majority of other species of animal, were created in two sexes, for the obvious purpose of procreation. Same-sex relationships, therefore, always have been – and always will be – a small minority, viewed as unnatural by the majority. You have no choice but to accept this.

The fight over same-sex marriage is nothing more than a pointless distraction from the important issues. Marriage should be whatever the two people involved want it to be. Strike down the notion of legally recognized marriage and the problem – for everybody who truly believes in individual liberty – is solved.

Opinion by Graham J Noble

Sources:

Washington Post

USA Today

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