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Same-sex marriage: Civil right vs. states' rights
Gay Marriage is Constitutional Issue Only
Legalizing gay marriage leads down a slippery slope that will ultimately challenge the First Amendment right to freedom of religion, in the same way that requiring Catholic institutions to pay for birth control services does. The government has no right to re-define what is fundamentally a religious definition. If a church chooses to define marriage as a union between adults of any gender, that is their prerogative. But for the government to dictate to a church what their own definition of marriage should be, then the government has overstepped its bounds and is in direct violation of one of most fundamental constitutional rights, that of separation of church and state.
On the other hand, civil unions are completely WITHIN the government's bounds constitutionally, and have been readily obtained for decades, via state-sanctioned unions conducted by a Justice of the Peace, ship's captain, or otherwise civil official. There is no need for any new law, only that gay unions be added to civil law, and that ALL unions, heterosexual or not, be given the same rights. Just don't call it marriage - that definition is reserved for religion alone.
The government should get out of the business of marriage entirely. As long as everyone has the same civil rights, this whole issue is moot.
On the other hand, civil unions are completely WITHIN the government's bounds constitutionally, and have been readily obtained for decades, via state-sanctioned unions conducted by a Justice of the Peace, ship's captain, or otherwise civil official. There is no need for any new law, only that gay unions be added to civil law, and that ALL unions, heterosexual or not, be given the same rights. Just don't call it marriage - that definition is reserved for religion alone.
The government should get out of the business of marriage entirely. As long as everyone has the same civil rights, this whole issue is moot.
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