Marriage and Family Life

Does Marriage Matter?
by The Institute for the Study of Civil Society
"This report represents what current social science evidence reveals about the importance of marriage in our social system."

Don't Let Government Define Marriage (Or Optimal Child-Rearing Environments)
by Gardner Goldsmith
"If conservatives believe that they can, in the words of President Bush, "trust the voters rather than the courts" to decide what is a marriage, then why not let the people truly decide, and remove the power to define marriage from the hands of government entirely?"

For Better or Worse: Gay marriage is better.
by Thomas W. Hazlett
"The institution of marriage is a public good. As H.L. Mencken pointed out, monogamy kills passion--which is dangerously antisocial--and so preserves civil society. But boring, established, long-term relationships would serve the tranquilizing social function for homosexuals as much as for anyone else. Why can't the religious right see that some of the most harmful excesses of the "gay lifestyle"--you know, the "disgusting" practices that I read about in graphic detail whenever my name is rented to a Falwellian fund-raiser--may flow from the lack of such calming institutions?"

Gay Marriage vs. American Marriage
Summer 2004
by Kay S. Hymowitz
"But beneath all the diversity, marriage has always had a fundamental, universal core that makes gay marriage a non sequitur: it has always governed property and inheritance rights; it has always been the means of establishing paternity, legitimacy, and the rights and responsibilities of parenthood; and because these goals involve bearing and raising children, it has always involved (at least one) man and woman. What's more, among the "startling diversity" of variations that different cultures have elaborated on this fundamental core, our own culture has produced a specifically American ideal of marriage that is inseparable from our vision of free citizenship and is deeply embedded in our history, politics, economics, and culture. Advocates for gay marriage cite the historical evolution of that ideal—which we might call republican marriage—to bolster their case, arguing that gay unions are a natural extension of America's dedication to civil rights and to individual freedom. But a look at that history is enough to cast serious doubt on the advocates' case."

An Individualist's View of Marriage and the Family
by Norman Barry

I Wed Thee, and Thee, and Thee
Autumn 2004
by Kay S. Hymowitz
"Same-sex marriage advocates tend to jeer at the argument that allowing such unions will open a smorgasbord of marital practices. They insist that what interests them is not to transform the institution radically but only to welcome their homosexual friends, neighbors, and relatives to its benefits. A few recent developments suggest that they're dead wrong."

Letter on Marriage
by Herbert Spencer
"There should be a thorough recognition on both sides of the equality of rights, and no amount of power should ever be claimed by the one party greater than that claimed by the other. The present relationship existing between husband and wife, where one claims a command over the actions of the other, is nothing more than a remnant of the old leaven of slavery. It is necessarily destructive of refined love; for how can a man continue to regard as his type of the ideal a being whom he has, by denying an equality of privilege with himself, degraded to something below himself? To me the exercise of command on the part of the husband seems utterly repugnant to genuine love, and I feel sure that a man of generous feeling has too much sympathy with the dignity of his wife to think of dictating to her, and that no woman of truly noble mind will submit to be dictated to."

Marriage and Love
by Emma Goldman
"Marriage and love have nothing in common; they are as far apart as the poles; are, in fact, antagonistic to each other. No doubt some marriages have been the result of love. Not, however, because love could assert itself only in marriage; much rather is it because few people can completely outgrow a convention. There are to-day large numbers of men and women to whom marriage is naught but a farce, but who submit to it for the sake of public opinion. At any rate, while it is true that some marriages are based on love, and while it is equally true that in some cases love continues in married life, I maintain that it does so regardless of marriage, and not because of it."

Marriage and the State
by Sean Turner
". . . the fight should not be how the federal government defines marriage. It should not be over the federal government’s deference (or lack thereof) to the states. No -- the fight should be to remove the state from private consensual agreements altogether – including marriage."

Marriage and the State
by Matthew O'Keeffe

Marriage Contracts Should Be Enforceable: The Libertarian Case Against No Fault Divorce
by Innes Fleming

A Marriage Proposal: Privatize It
by Colin P.A. Jones
"Couples entering into marriage should be allowed to use a partnership agreement tailored to their own circumstances and aspirations—one that reflects the values and expectations that they themselves attach to marriage—not forced to take or leave a one-size-fits-all version supplied by the government. The privatization of marriage would not only give couples far more choices, but it would also end the strife among those who seek to turn marriage into something that they can control by defining what it is."

The Marriage Quagmire
August 5, 2003
by Wendy McElroy
"To save its soul, marriage needs to be removed from power politics and privatized.
What constitutes a marriage should be determined by contract between the consenting adults involved, not by government. Politicians should be stripped of the power to dictate which consenting adults may marry or the terms of those marriages. The only proper concern of law should be to enforce the contract and to arbitrate any breach that occurs."

People - Not the Government - Should Decide What Marriage Means
by Brian Micklethwait

Redefining Marriage Away
Summer 2004
by David L. Tubbs and Robert P. George
"Some proponents of same-sex marriage believe that its legalization will help same-sex partners be sexually faithful. The evidence, however, suggests that acceptance of the norm of sexual exclusivity is a minority view among homosexuals in the United States and elsewhere. Furthermore, because intimate relations between persons of the same sex are inherently--and not merely contingently--unconnected to procreation, there is no principled reason to limit same-sex marriage to two persons. Thus, one can reasonably predict that same-sex marriage is going to be intrinsically unstable, as Sex Panic recognized in expressing its contempt for the institution. As if to confirm these points, the first same-sex couple to receive a marriage license in Provincetown, Massachusetts, told the press that they had an "open" marriage."

Religion, Culture and Law in Free Societies
by Tibor R. Machan
"No one is required to like or approve of it when gays marry. Certainly, no one is forced to enter into such unions. So, to try to resist or ban such unions is clearly not a matter of defending one’s right to liberty. It is to impose a code of personal conduct on others who do not agree with it."

A Solution to Reclaim Holy Matrimony
by Bryan Rusch
"Christians can easily point fingers and cast blame that a few men wearing black dresses have determined and given rise to homosexual marriage in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I submit that Christians are ultimately responsible for this travesty. They gave up the high ground to the State in matters of Holy Matrimony decades ago by acquiescing to State licensing and forsaking the Church's First Amendment protections. In doing so, the Christians have effectively married themselves to another god, a god whom they still faithfully serve, and have yet to divorce from entirely. That god is the State."

They Who Marry Do Ill
by Voltairine de Cleyre

Who Defends Marriage?
by Roderick Long
"Under Mr. Sobran’s favoured political régime, and mine, the legal definition of marriage, like all legal issues, will be decided not by a monopolistic government but by private, co-territorial enterprises competing for customers. Within the same geographical area, some legal institutions will cater to socially conservative customers by offering only traditional heterosexual marriage contracts and advertising boldly “We defend the family!” while other institutions will cater to socially liberal customers by offering a wider variety of marriage contracts and advertising with equal boldness “We defend equality!” And the whole legal wrangle over marriage will be done with, forever."

Why Marriage Is Good For You
Autumn 2000
by Maggie Gallagher
"Recently, I had the opportunity to review the scientific evidence on the consequences of marriage for adults with University of Chicago scholar Linda J. Waite for our new book, The Case for Marriage. What I found surprised me. Quietly, with little fanfare, a broad and deep body of scientific literature has been accumulating that affirms what Genesis teaches: it is not good for man to be alone—no, nor woman neither. In virtually every way that social scientists can measure, married people do much better than the unmarried or divorced: they live longer, healthier, happier, sexier, and more affluent lives."

Wives