I'm probably going to regret posting this, but... what the heck.
“For some, marriage is a religious sacrament.”
I have a question. Why is something that some consider a religious sacrament even part of the law of the state?
So here’s my solution. Dissolve all marriages. To avoid mass confusion, current marriages could be converted into civil unions. No ‘marriage’ in the future would have any legal ramifications. If people want to file a civil union, they can. If they want to have some sort of ‘joining ceremony’ they can (although this wouldn’t be the government’s responsibility - they would just keep track of civil unions that are filed properly with the appropriate authorities).
Governments wouldn’t keep track of marriage. A local church or union hall or some internet nut with a marriage fetish could do that if they wanted. But as far as the government would be concerned, marriage simply wouldn’t exist for any legal purposes.
Then give civil unions all the rights and responsibilities currently associated with marriage.
And then, if you want to have a ‘marriage ceremony,’ you can circle your bridegroom, stand under a canopy, drink rice wine, recite vows in front of a minister or share your vows with your favourite tree or local wicca priestess. But until you truck on down to the courthouse and file the papers necessary for a civil union (and, no, your marriage papers don’t count - especially since they could have been created by your favourite tree
), there are no legal ramifications to your ‘marriage ceremony.’
But get rid of the word ‘marriage’ from the law all together. Make civil unions possible for any two consenting adults who want their finances and property dealt with as part of a single ‘household’. It would make all people equal and would allow people to decide for themselves what the meaning and purpose of ‘marriage’ is - instead of making the state define it.
Just an idea, of course.
ML
