It is a government issue, and it is a good point. I don't think (but I'm not sure) that it's not good enough on its own.
At the very least, the government should stay out of marriage when possible, and they should keep everything optional (perhaps you don't want your spouse to inherit your stuff).
If it is a government issue, then marriage in the U.S. is a government issue as well...
It's fuzzy. That means that it's at least a little a government issue, but not necessarily important enough that they really should do it. You could find some reason why the government should care about anything.
I'm not saying "the government should care about who gets my house, and marriage relates to that decision, and therefore marriage should be a government issue."
I'm saying "right now, today, in the real world, the government does care about who gets my house, and marriage relates to that decision, and therefore marriage is, right now, a government issue."
As I said initially:
...Perhaps if the government was not involved in any issues like that, to which the social status of my husband and me were relevant, I would agree with you that our
A thought occurred to me today as I skimmed an article in a rationality forum where the subject of gay marriage cropped up; seeing as the issue has been hotly contested in various public fora and especially the courts, what about poly? After all, many if not all the arguments for gay marriage apply to poly marriage as well.
Questions for LWers who are currently in a such a relationship, or have an opinion to share:
Do polies want to marry each other or do such relationships not lend themselves to permanence above a threshold of partners? Should polies campaign for the right for a civil union anyway? what are the up and down sides of this? etc