The recent court ruling on Proposition 8 has put same sex marriage back on the national front burner.
Is it any wonder that marriage has become politicized? Everything that government touches becomes a political battleground including education, charity, tax codes, medical and scientific research and on and on.
In education the politicians battle over how schools get funded, what money goes to which schools, who gets paid what and what gets taught and not taught. Government undermined private charity with welfare and created an entitlement culture. Recipients are no longer grateful for relief; they are resentful that they don’t get more. The tax code is no longer just a device to fund government services; it is a carrot to reward friends and a stick to punish enemies. The field of publicly funded research is a sausage mill turning tax dollars into pork.
Pat Benatar sang that Love is a Battlefield but I don’t think she had the current controversy in mind. Let’s compare the libertarian perspective on marriage to that of other political orientations. As we do so, let’s keep in mind the question of just what is government’s role in marriage anyway?
Social conservatives see stable and loving families as they the bedrock institution of society. It is though stable and loving families that society is renewed and that children are properly nurtured, socialized and educated. This should be obvious to anyone. These social conservatives see same sex marriage as a corrosive force that will further undermine the fabric of American life. They will use government’s authority to prevent same sex marriage from becoming the law of the land. They appeal to the “will of the people” through polls and elections.
Left liberals want to use the same governmental force to put same sex marriage on an equal footing with traditional marriage. Through the courts, they appeal to the Constitution’s “equal protection” clause claiming that marriage is a fundamental right. In doing so, liberals coyly redefine the age old definition of marriage from a union of a man and woman to a union of any two consenting adults. One also suspects that this is a position of convenience for liberals and not a matter of firm principle as President Obama himself sticks with the traditional man-woman formula.
Finally, in some authoritarian nations, government plays a very heavy handed role in marriage by dictating who may marry whom and how many children they can have. We saw this in Nazi Germany, the Islamic World and the People’s Republic of China
So what do libertarians think? Let’s step back to consider just what marriage is and how that relates to government.
From an anthropological perspective, marriage is a social institution that predates any nation, government or religion. This institution laid the foundation of society and culture by making men responsible for the care, protection and feeding of their vulnerable mates and offspring. Although homosexuality undoubtedly also existed since time immemorial, no parallel institution emerged. Perhaps this is because the need to protect mothers and offspring did not exist in homosexual unions.
Various religions have differing perspectives on marriage. Perhaps it would be fair enough to generalize the religious outlook as a sworn commitment before the Creator. Government has no role in this, nor can it force any sect or denomination to alter its dogma. Churches are free to bless or condemn any unions that they please.
Finally, marriage is a social contract between people that carries with it an array of obligations that each party owes to the other. Libertarians believe that government has a compelling and legitimate interest in enforcing contracts as they are the basis of civil society. Without faith in contracts, our entire social and economic structure falls to pieces. Like most Americans, libertarians believe that any two adults of sound mind are free to enter into any contract that they choose. Once they do so, the terms of said contract are enforceable by the courts should one party on another try to welsh on the deal.
Thus, although we tend to refer to homosexual partnerships as civil unions, it is in fact true that each and every marriage is a civil union and open to any adult. The name “marriage” is a sacred obligation that is conferred by a church or may simply be a term of convenience used conversationally by any two committed partners.
Libertarians believe that each and every individual has the right to commit him or herself to a lifetime contract with another and that the state has the obligation to uphold that agreement.
Siano for Congress
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