Separating Government Taxes From Marriage [OpEd]Comments on: http://www.kyle-brady.com/2009/07/30/separating-government-taxes-from-marriage/ coherent thoughts on diverse topics Fri, 19 Mar 2010 05:51:06 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Kyle Brady http://www.kyle-brady.com/2009/07/30/separating-government-taxes-from-marriage/#comment-3208 Kyle Brady Thu, 30 Jul 2009 22:04:26 +0000 http://www.kyle-brady.com/?p=3272#comment-3208 I wholeheartedly agree.<br><br>--Kyle I wholeheartedly agree.

–Kyle

]]> By: Carmina http://www.kyle-brady.com/2009/07/30/separating-government-taxes-from-marriage/#comment-3207 Carmina Thu, 30 Jul 2009 21:41:30 +0000 http://www.kyle-brady.com/?p=3272#comment-3207 Most arguments against gay marriage fail utterly to recognize the establishment clause of the First Amendment—pretending instead that the marriage license is simply designed to shadow religious marriage—and the rest really just tend to make weird claims about the nature of marriage and families. As if the United States Government has a stake in encouraging people to have children by offering marriage licenses. (That one is my favorite because the obvious solution is to automatically abolish marriages that fail to produce children.)<br><br>It is darkly telling that so many religious interests are the ones lobby against this. Singing that marriage is their bastion, even though the government shouldn’t have a stake either way in their doctrines. Legal marriage doesn’t belong to religion—<i>no part of our government should</i>.<br><br>If there was a single secular argument against gay marriage that didn’t manage to argue successfully against <i>all</i> marriage it might make sense. Most arguments against gay marriage fail utterly to recognize the establishment clause of the First Amendment—pretending instead that the marriage license is simply designed to shadow religious marriage—and the rest really just tend to make weird claims about the nature of marriage and families. As if the United States Government has a stake in encouraging people to have children by offering marriage licenses. (That one is my favorite because the obvious solution is to automatically abolish marriages that fail to produce children.)

It is darkly telling that so many religious interests are the ones lobby against this. Singing that marriage is their bastion, even though the government shouldn’t have a stake either way in their doctrines. Legal marriage doesn’t belong to religion—no part of our government should.

If there was a single secular argument against gay marriage that didn’t manage to argue successfully against all marriage it might make sense.

]]>