WHAT IS MARRIAGE? H. John Rogers

A columnist argues that marriage is just a private contract, like any others. This is a prime example of a genre that appears to believe (in extremely denigrating language) that marital love itself is a 20th century invention. If you follow his logic closely the word marriage disintegrates into the word contract. Business partners who want to call their union a marriage are married.

Excerpt below, column here.

Thus, it is quite clear that under the law, a marriage is nothing more than a private contract, just like a rental agreement or a directive to a broker to buy pork futures, both of which the law will enforce according to either the terms of the agreement (e.g., a prenuptial contract such as one advocated but not utilized by former Justice Richard Neely) or the applicable statutes (e.g., custody, property division and child support.)

Consequently, a gay or lesbian couple could by private contact be just as "married" as any heterosexual pair.

posted by maggie at 6:19 PM VOTE

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