Reply #: Marriage sucks, as anybody who's been married will tell you [View All]

[Warpy]

I have no idea why it continues to be gussied up with hearts and flowers and the blessings of the spook in the sky. All married people go through periods when they don't like each other very much and periods when they fantasize about pillows over the face at 3 AM.

At its heart, it's the promotion of an unrelated person to first degree relative status. There's a whole body of law governing that relationship, and the laws governing any offspring from that relationship, however they are conceived (remember, straights adopt, too), are basically property laws.

The property law, even that concerning the disposition of children, can be accomplished via contract. However, marriage confers the human rights associated with first degree relative status, like visitation in a hospital when the blood relatives object and claiming a body after death, just for examples.

That's why, as rotten as the institution is sometimes, it needs to be opened to all consenting adults. The equal treatment amendment guarantees it and it's about time for states to awaken to that fact.