What is the governments interest in marriage?Common Sense believes that that question should be at the heart of the issue of marriage and law. The continuing argument about gay marriage is thus silly as it rooted not in some reasonable government purpose but in particular religious beliefs.
Governments interest in marriage, or more properly a legal relationship between several parties, a civil union, is rather limited. It includes principally the following:
- Tax related issues - there's a separate tax schedule for couples and a child deduction. These are provisions of the tax code having nothing to do with gender.
- Property rights - should the union dissolve, the parties have property rights in joint property. This is a common law provision that can be overridden by pre-union agreements.
- Inheritance issues - absent a will, spouses are presumptive inheritors. This is a common law convention that can be easily overridden by a will.
- Medical proxy - absent a medical proxy document, spouses are presumptive proxies. Another common law convention that can be overridden.
- Spousal insurance - a spouse is preemptively insured under a workers medical insurance. This is a contract matter derived from the contract provisions of the insurance agreement.
Note that the issue of gender does NOT occur in any of these interest! Interestingly, neither does the issue of number of spouses, at least not fundamentally!
Common Sense thinks that the gay marriage controversy is really about the definition of the word marriage and religious notions. Common Sense thinks that government ought to get out of the marriage business and simply provide, as is done in a number of European countries, a civil registry that conveys defined legal rights to the union's parties. Religion need not, and in Common Sense's view should not, enter into government's involvement in unions between two, or for that matter more, parties. That's just common sense.
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