Marriage

A few thoughts about marriage:

1. The only good reason for marriage that I can think of is to raise a family. You can have a loving, long-term, and cohabitating relationship without marriage. But raising one or more human children to maturity is a full-time team effort. It requires a long-term contract. That's marriage.

2. The family continues to be the dominant social force. All human relations are inherently tribal, although the definition of tribal continues to expand- from family, to tribe, to nation, to species. Families are the basic cultural unit.

3. I don't think it matters who the adults in the family are as long as they are committed, loving, intelligent, and competent adults. Gay, straight, polygamist, whatever, I think that who you are as a parent is more important than what you are. And if you raise your children well, they'll understand that (unless they're just assholes. I firmly believe that some people are just genetically assholes, no matter how well you raise them).

4. I cannot think of a single compelling reason why marriage should have a legal status. But I'm a libertarian.