I am opposed to gay mar­riage, but I am also opposed to straight mar­riage. I also oppose bans on gay mar­riage. But read the whole thing, because it is more com­pli­cated than that. Mar­riage is a pack­age deal. Break up the pack­age, and the answers become clear. Mar­riage com­bines a con­stel­la­tion of legal oblig­a­tions in con­tract (con­cern­ing prop­erty, intes­tacy, finances, par­ent­ing, med­ical decision-​​​​making, &c.) with a set of priv­i­leges* con­ferred by the state under var­i­ous man­dates and enti­tle­ment schemes. If we get rid of all the ille­git­i­mate, welfare-​​​​state junk asso­ci­ated with mar­riage, all we are left with is a com­plex, legit­i­mate two-​​​​party† con­tract. As it stands now [ . . . ]

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