Bernie

If gay marriage cannot be legally sanctioned because marriage is for children, then my friends’ (inevitably childless) marriage should not be sanctioned either.

While all cultures throughout history have had some type of marriage, its form and legitimation has varied hugely. Marriage is what society says it is. Protection of children may have been the main purpose of marriage before the 20th century. But nowadays, marriage is neither necessary nor sufficient to ensure protection for children. A third of marriages end in divorce, and about half of these involve children. 30% of children are born to unmarried parents. And many people, like my friends, marry without the expectation or even possibility of having children. For better or worse, the “standard” model is no longer “standard”.

The involvement of the State in determining who is or is not officially “married” is a comparatively recent phenomenon, probably eighteenth century in the English legal tradition. You may well be right that the need for State involvement rested on the legal and financial privileges and benefits that society confers on married couples. But as pretty much all of these nowadays apply equally to unmarried couples in stable relationships (including gay couples), that justification has evaporated too.

Perhaps it is time for the State to get out of the marriage business.

If marriage is/is to be a private matter then why can't there be three or more people in it? Or maybe a man or woman marry their dog, huh? I tell you what, the way things are heading society is going to the dogs.

Roscop,
I've asked the same question and the following variant:
"If two heterosexual men or two heterosexual women want to get married is that also equal to any other form of union?".
The LGBTI people don't usually reply.

Jay the fact that this couple are saying they were not pedos just gay doesn't mean they are right.

No gay person I know thinks having sex with kids is part of being homosexualailty. Do you think it's right to have hetrosexual relation with childern? that s normal part of heterosexual training is to have sex with your kids?

"attempt to fix in law a particular definition of marriage."

But that's what laws are: definitions.
At the start of every act is a glossary of terms and what they mean.

"Marriage" may have different definitions in different eras and cultures, but each *is/was* the accepted definition in that context.

"Legal definitions undergo a process of evolution, sometimes rapid, at the hands of the courts or Parliament."

And whenever there's a change, the new definition is "trapped in amber" and will not be amended until a further successful challenge.

"The simple fact is that Parliament can change the definition of marriage if it wants to"

Now you're getting it!
But it has no obligation to.

"And for those who perform marriages, religious or civil, there should be no obligation to marry those of whom they disapprove."

So they can refuse a mixed race couple or blind-sighted couple, if they personally "disapprove"?

Not with our anti-discrimination laws!
How about getting rid of those government-imposed "definitions" of what is allowed in our private lives?

"Minding other people's business" is exactly the *purpose* of government.
The only question is where we draw the line.

Shadow Minister, yes why is marriage defined as permanent?
Is Leyonhjelm going to repeal that oppressive definition too?

Rhian,

The involvement of the State in marriage is far from being recent:

"Marriage in ancient Rome was a strictly monogamous institution: a Roman citizen by LAW [emphasis added] could have only one spouse at a time. The practice of monogamy distinguished the Greeks and Romans from other ancient civilizations, in which elite males typically had multiple wives. Greco-Roman monogamy may have arisen from the egalitarianism of the democratic and republican political systems of the city-states. It is one aspect of ancient Roman culture that was embraced by early Christianity, which in turn perpetuated it as an ideal in later Western culture".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage_in_ancient_Rome