The Hallowed Institute of Marriage

I have to laugh when I think of how some people, who are otherwise perfectly rational individuals, when the topic of marriage comes up. There are so many different views to the subject, and so many bodies and institutions that want everyone to be married that it is hard to believe that the institution of marriage really means much anymore.

I am not married and have no plans to ever get married. I am just as committed to my girlfriend, and she to I, as if we were married. We just do not have the piece of paper. And that is really what "marriage" comes down to anymore, a piece of paper. Sure, that one little piece of paper has a lot of advantages. You get lower tax rates for a married couple than two non-married individuals. Insurance companies insure wives/husbands and families but not boyfriends and girlfriends.

But I just get stuck at the point that you have to pay for a license, pay for the ceremony, and should it not work out, I'm gonna pay to get out of it. So let me get this straight: I am going to pay some disinterested third party for the right to spend the rest of my life with someone? Are they going to live with her when she is on the war path? Are they going to step in when she "has a headache"? I don't think so. The latter would more than likely end with me paying the same disinterested third party to get me away from my wife before one of us is dead! So what exactly is the advantages of being married?

And then, to top it all off, we have gay marriages. I'm all for it, since it really is a decision between two individuals. But the very same disinterested party that is going to get more money out of the deal are strikingly against it. Now they want to protect the hallowed institution by keeping it limited only to mixed-sex marriages. Gotta protect the family! Excuse me, but homosexuals are perfectly able to adopt, or find other means to have a family. How is excluding them from being able to marry protecting family? And worse than that, why is our government protecting a largely religious structure when we are supposed to have separation between Church and State?