I Voted Yes on #1

…and I’m not certain that I should have. I agree with the left - gay marriage supporters - that every adult should have basically the same rights under the law. On the other hand, I agree with conservatives - gay marriage opponents - that marriage is at its core a spiritual union between two complementary people, a man and a woman.

State-sanctioned marriage is a historical artifact, really; because men and women married and it acquired certain benefits and responsibilities (inheritance, shared child-reading, etc.), the state (government, generally) began to sanction it. Of course, the original sponsors of these unions never foresaw the day that two men or two women would want the same legal rights.

Now that that day has arrived, it's time for the state to get out of the marriage business and into the civil union business. Now, anyone who marries - however they choose to do so - should get a license of civil union under the law that has the same legal binding as the old marriage license. Instead of giving the title of marriage to one group, it takes it away from the other - and perhaps we never should have had it to begin with.

Isn't that a lot of ministration, when you could just allow gays to marry? Yes it is. Is it that important? Yes it is.

And that was enough to vote yes on #1? It was last Thursday.