Marrriage

Marriage

Written by Phillip Rhodes
Wednesday, 11 June 2008

I hold that marriage is a purely private contractual arrangement between consenting adults. Further I hold that one of the (few) valid purposes of government is to enforce contracts. As such, I believe government should be involved in marriage only to the extent that government is involved in enforcing any other contract.


I accept no valid role for governments to regulate, sanction, certify or restrict marriage. I do not believe that consenting adults need permission from anyone, least of all the State government, to enter into contracts including marriage agreements.

I reject all calls for the State to restrict marriage to certain classes of residents, or to constrain the number, sex, religion, race, or any other characteristics of the participants in a marriage agreement. As an important corollary however, I also reject any authority on the part of the State to force any other individual or entity to accept the validity of someone else's marriage agreement. I also hold that the state should confer no special privileges, no impose any penalties, on anyone due to their martial status or lack thereof.

In short: gay marriage, straight marriage, monogamy, polygamy, whatever... the State simply has no business meddling in these affairs.