Marriage Equality Is Not About Marriage
Marriage equality. Same-sex marriage. Gay marriage. No matter how you name it, it’s not about marriage.
Seriously. It’s really not. Very few people seem to get this. Of those who oppose it, no one gets it. I will state again, this issue is not about marriage.
It’s about equal treatment under the law.
Religious marriage is one thing. It’s the kind of marriage that anti-gay people can rightfully deny, if they so choose. I don’t believe clergy or churches should be required to perform marriages for people of the same gender, if they don’t want to. If they get sued because they refused, that’s not an appropriate lawsuit.
But then we have the civil institution of marriage. It shares the same word, but it’s a completely different creature. It’s a legally binding contract that conveys legal and financial rights and responsibilities onto the two parties entering into the agreement.
Many states (but far from a majority) offer substitutes for marriage: civil unions, domestic partnerships, etc. Many gay people (well, Elton John, anyway) seem to think that’s just fine. Even among those who oppose marriage equality, we can find some who support civil institutions as long as they’re not called “marriage.”
The problem? Separate but equal is not equal. Non-marriage institutions do not convey the full range of over 1,100 rights and responsibilities as true marriage. But that’s almost beside the point. Separate institutions automatically create a class system. Those who are denied the institutions available to the majority become second-class citizens.
Our founders believed in equal rights: that all people are created equal and should have equal access and recourse under the law. Constitutionally, we are not a country that believes in second-class citizens. Our national Constitution, which is the entire foundation of both our government and legal system, instructs our government to apply the value of equality of all citizens to its legal transactions with those citizens.
Our government isn’t doing that, and it’s wrong.
Not because we’re denying gay people marriage through Defense of Marriage acts and Proposition 8’s. Because we’re treating one group of people differently under the law.
