Defense of Marriage

OK, this is a totally off-topic rant for me, but why not: it's my blog, after all.

Here's what I think about defense of marriage: marriage is an institution that has traditionally been administered by religious authorities. Ministers, priests, mullahs, and so forth have been pronouncing people married since the invention of the wheel (if not longer). Modern governments have taken it upon themselves to assign rights and responsibilities to married couples, but I really don't think it's their business deciding who can and can't get married (assuming the interested parties are of legal age and not too closely related).

Therefore, if two individuals can find a religious authority willing to pronounce them married, they are married, no matter what the state or the general population thinks. To deny them the legal rights normally accorded to married couples is religious descrimination, which the Constitution of the United States expressly forbids.

Please do not manipulate these statements to conclude that only a religious authority can marry people; common law marriages have been around for ages, too. I just don't think the government should be saying "these two people can be married, but these other two can't".