My gay brother texted me the other day asking if I was pro gay marriage.
My response was that I was amateur gay marriage.
He really liked that.
But the reality is that this whole marriage issue has gotten co-opted, distorted, and parsed so that the real question is completely lost.
Lets look at the question at its foundation.
What is marriage and how should "the state" regulate it?
Really, governments have only been in the business of regulating marriage for the last few hundred years. Prior to that the church or common law dictated what marriage was.
In the US right now a church does not have the legal right to marry someone. Only 'the state' can issue a marriage license. Churches can sanctify marriage, and priests can be licensed by 'the state' to carry out marriages, but the authority to legally bind two people together rests with 'the state.'
The forms of marriage that are legal in America generally include the following: 1)Monogamy between one man and one woman. 2)Polygamy in the form of serial monogamy. 3)Child marriage (usually over 16). and in some states 4)Monogamy between two consenting adults.
Which is the most popular? Polygamy as serial monogamy.
In this light it is clear that the religious right has no business talking about monogamy as a moral issue.
The state should license civil contracts between people, while doing whatever it can to protect children from predatory adults and religious fanatics. Churches can sanctify whatever they want as long as they let other people do as they wish.
Otherwise, get government out of the business of telling adults how to live their lives.