Same-sex marriage and discrimination
The current argument in favour of homosexual marriage is that, without it, the institution of marriage is discriminatory, just as laws against miscegenation were 50 years ago. It is a violation of civil rights to keep homosexuals from enjoying the same benefits as heterosexual couples. One can make this case, but it has two serious problems, one ontological and one practical. First, the definition of marriage is and always has been a union of a man and a woman. Some counter that marriage has previously been defined as the marriage of a man and woman of the same race, and since that definition was overturned, why not this one? But marriage has only sometimes included laws restricting the race, religion, or class of the married couple; it has always and everywhere meant a union of a man and a woman. (In the case of polygamy, it is a man and a woman, and that man and another woman, etc.; in each case, one man and one woman celebrate a marriage ceremony. One man...