[Vision2020] Gay Marriage, again

[Melynda Huskey]

Doug writes:

>Melynda, your last paragraph surprised me. Given what you acknowledge as 
>common practice throughout history, how could we exclude a man's two wives 
>(for example) from ICU unless we are willing to impose a particular 
>religious view of marriage through the mechanism of civil law?

I'm not sure I understand the question.

Our current marriage laws are indeed a consequence of, as you say, imposing 
a particular religious view of marriage through the mechanism of civil law.  
It's true that the number as well as the sex of the potential partners is 
regulated, and their degree of consanguinity and their age. Once upon a time 
their races were also policed, and in some places, their intelligence and 
"fitness to reproduce" as defined by the state.

My point was simply that questions of policy regarding polygamous marriages 
are quite separate from questions of policy regarding same-sex marriage.  
Neither one implies the other, and although there may well be people on 
Vision 2020 who have well-defined ideas about public policy on polygamy, I 
am not one of them.  I can only speak to the issues of same-sex marriage 
with any degree of expertise.

Limitedly,

Melynda Huskey

Go, said the bird, for the leaves were full of children,
Hidden excitedly, containing laughter.
Go, go, go, said the bird: human kind
Cannot bear very much reality.
Burnt Norton, T.S. Eliot

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