Same-sex marriage is a civil right. SSM, in its most basic form, is a civil contract signed between two adult, consenting partners who want to be bound financially to each other. Love or kids not required, although I'd bet that most SS couples are doing it for love. I've opposed it in the past, but a series of changes over the past year have changed my opinion on the topic.

My opposition to SSM has never been about religion or phantom deities. The center of my argument has always been about the dissolution of the family unit: one man, one woman, and their children. I've always been -- and continue to be -- a strong believer in the family unit as a building block of society. And I do continue to believe that changing that ideal has led to the cheapening quality of what marriage should be, as well as some serious societal discord. Divorce is too easy. People enter marriage lightly with the expectation of divorce. People have numerous children with different partners outside of or within marriage. Gay and hetero couples and singles already go to freaky weird lengths to be parents -- no partner required. Many children are raising parents instead of the other way around. Changing the very idea of what constitutes a family is so completely horrifying.

And then it dawned on me that the world is marching ahead to new ideals with or without me -- some good, but many that threaten the very core of my oh-so-20th-century beliefs. And that only happened when I removed the concept of "family" from marriage. For those other issues that are most important, I will continue to fight against change.

SSM isn't one I'll fight against.

Make no mistake; allowing SSM will change many things. It will change the way we relate to each other, it will cost money (health benefits, survivor benefits/social security, etc.) and it will impact religious institutions, namely Christian schools, no matter how many people argue that it won't and doesn't impact anyone else's lives but their own. (Consider that schools would either be foolhardy or downright unconstitutional not to recognize SSM when relating to and teaching students.) This is a serious societal change, but it's one that has already been progressing for decades.

Now it's time to make it legal.  Just my two cents.