OK, so why is a middle aged bachelor commenting on marriage at all, much less gay marriage. Normally, I'd agree and say "what's this to do with me?"
Let's examine marriage from a functional angle, removing the emotional, historical and religious aspects: what is marriage for? From a legal perspective, it allows the secure transfer of wealth, property, estate etc. from one generation to the next, especially if the family has only daughters. From a health perspective, in a time before advanced medicine, it prevents (in theory at least) the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases: most societies frown upon infidelity and it's even punishable by death in some. It creates a stable social unit in a society which has grown beyond the extended family, clan or tribe.
What is now being discussed is extending this social and legal structure to encompass a social phenomenon which, although has been around for as long as we have, has only been public for the last fifty or so. Non-mixed marriage, anybody?
What bothers me is this: why is it such a big deal? If we have so many problems doing this simple thing, what are we going to be like dealing with real issues which affect everybody? Stem cell research, cloning, anti-ageing drugs and longevity, sentient and semi-sentient AI, genetic modification, physical and mental augmentation, smart drugs, consciousness uploading, nanotechnology. These are not trans-gender issues, these are trans-human issues. The next fifty years, much less the next one hundred, are going to see a revolution in what it means to be human, and I don't think we are even ready if we are bickering about whether two people who love each other can get married or not.
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