Government and gay marriage
Since the government IS involved with marriage, it should grant marriage equally to all people, including use of the term ‘marriage.’ To call it by another name, even if legally identical, implies that something is different. And as far as the gov’t goes, nothing is different: marriage is a contractual agreement. So long as the people can enter into legal contracts, the law should be blind to sexual orientation, just as it is (now) blind to race, religion, age, class, ability to reproduce, etc. Two-hundred years ago, inter-racial marriages were anathema, and it was a woman’s duty to be a baby-making machine. These are historically-true facts that properly have no bearing on the relevant rights.
It should be optional for churches to recognize gay marriages socially and theologically (assuming church and state are kept separate). That doesn’t make it right or rational. So long as subscription to a religion is optional (thank god!), there’s nothing legally wrong with this arrangement. And it’s laws we are asked to vote on, not social mores.
If there is friction between married gays and their church, it is for them (gays, pastors, theologians) to sort out. But no person or group is entitled to deny equality before the law to anyone on the basis of sexual orientation (or a myriad other things). That is a primary purpose of the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
It would also be wrong for gays to use the government to force churches to socially or theologically recognize their "kind" of marriage - because the government shouldn’t recognize different "kinds" of marriage at all. For the government (ideally) you’re either married, or you’re not. No person, gay or straight, is or should be legally entitled to be a welcomed member of any voluntary group.
It’s not the place of government (preemptively or by conscription) to adjudicate a dispute between gays and religion. But, thanks to the inherent tyranny of mob-rule democracy, Prop 8 un-blindfolded Madam Justice to cannonize one group’s social and theological views.
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