Let's have a little talk about marriage...

I married my husband 11 days after my 19th birthday, which was also 10 days after our first child was born. My husband had just completed Marine Corps boot camp. We stayed his entire leave with my parents. You can imagine how my wedding night went with these little facts. When I got married, I was only thinking of how much I loved my husband and how I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. Our wedding was in a church with a minister, but I couldn't have cared less if it was in a ditch and we were pronounced by a passing hobo. I invited family because I wanted them to share this important decision with me. Most importantly, I wanted us to be legally bound. I didn't care about the declaration of our love and commitment before God, because religion is not important to me. I did care about the declaration of our love and commitment to each other. I cared about the ceremony and ritual of joining - emotionally, financially, and legally.

Lately, I'm overwhelmed by the number of - we'll just say people - who insist on legal declaration of marriage as a joining of man and woman. There is lots of discussion about same-sex marriage as "violating the sanctity of marriage," which is why it's so important to state man and woman. In the state constitution. I understand the importance of putting some specifics on who should get married, especially if they aren't already in the state constitutions. If my state constitution doesn't say a man can't marry a goat, I'm concerned. There are rules about children, right? Isn't marrying an animal abusive too? But human and human should be as specific as we get when it comes to people being married.

Sanctity: n. pl. sanc·ti·ties: Something considered sacred

Sacred: adj. : Dedicated to or set apart for the worship of a deity.

I'm guessing we're a little fuzzy on what separating church and state really means?

If you think marriage is a holy and god-endorsed union, more power to you. But on the books, in a legal sense? Do any of these Ch-- ahem, people - have reasons to ammend state constituion that don't include their religious beliefs? People, marriage is important to everyone who is, or wants to be, married. Marriage is only sacred to you. Your marriage and recognition before God is not at all threatened by others not following your rules. Why do you even care?