March 12, 2011

Solving the Gay Marriage Dilemma

By F. Owen Smith

"Reserved For The Use Of The White Race Only", warned a sign I saw at the entrance to a public park in Greensboro, North Carolina back in the Sixties. Too bad I didn't appropriate that little historical gem so I could update it to today's standards and post it at the State marriage-license window to warn: "Reserved For The Use Of Heterosexuals Only".

"Irish Need Not Apply" was often posted on businesses in early 20^th-Century America. "Gays And lesbians Need Not Apply" should be posted over State marriage-license windows in modern-day America.

When force enters, logic flees. And so it is with gay marriage, indeed with any marriage, as marriage is the monopoly of the State and the State is force so logic cannot be applied to marriage. The State dictates who may be married and who may not be married, that is married under the laws of the State.

Marriage is a club wholly owned and operated by the State and only certain citizens are allowed to join and enjoy its benefits while others are kept out by force. Consider this hypocrisy: Private restaurants are defined by the State as "public accommodations", meaning they are required to serve gay people, yet that same State denies the protection and benefit of certain of its laws to the same gay people they force the restaurant to serve.

If we're going to allow State-sponsored discrimination in marriage, the most intimate non-genetic relationship of all, we might as well go back to separate but equal gay-straight water fountains, restrooms and schools. No wait, scratch the restrooms part. Bad idea.

Gay marriage, shmay marriage, let's call it what it is: discrimination, even worse, State-sponsored discrimination and it doesn't get any worse than that. Something needs to be done.

Fortunately, there is an easy solution to the gay marriage "dilemma" and that solution lies not in getting gays into marriage but getting the State out of marriage. Let me repeat that: Get the State out of marriage.

Get the State out is the perfect conservative solution to any social dilemmas for the simple reason that at the root of most social dilemmas is, wait for it, the State. If there is any problem in "gay marriage", it's not the "gay" part but the "marriage" part, that is, State-defined, State-administered and State-monopolized marriage.

There are those who insist marriage is "ordained by God", and to them I say, no problem, get married by a priest, rabbi, imam or guru in a church, synagogue, mosque or by the light of the quickening moon under a whistling thorn tree, and when you want to get unmarried, go back to the priest etc in the church etc and get unmarried under whatever rules you got married. So much for God in marriage, now to Mammon in marriage.

There are those who insist marriage is a "contract" and to them I also say, no problem, have an honest attorney draw up a legally-binding contract that specifies whatever you want to specify, from right of survivorship to joint custody to who takes out the garbage on Tuesday, live under that contract as long as you can stand each other and when you can't, go back to the attorney and dissolve the contract in a fair way. Of course, courts will have to be involved in some disputed actions but they're already involved.

There it is, folks, the simple solution to the gay marriage dilemma is to take the State out of the equation and let people design the kind of marriages, which is to say the kind of contracts they want and not the kind the State dictates. Individual responsibility-- what a concept.