LttE - No more arguments over gay marriage

Submitted to the OC Register on 6/3/2005:

Rather than jump on the bandwagon of emotion-driven partisan bickering over the harm gay marriage will cause society or the evils of not conferring every husband-and-wife perk to gay couples, I’d like to propose a third option. How about we get the government completely out of the business of recognizing marriage?

Seriously – let the government treat all its citizens the same, whether single or married; same tax burden, same tax credits, same privileges, everything. Churches can decide for themselves whether couples are “married” or not, it’s not the government’s business anyway. Visitation rights and community property can be granted with contracts – it’d be no larger burden on married couples and domestic partners than it is today, just different paperwork with different headers.

Imagine that, the government treating its citizens equally and letting the church care for the morals of society. Sounds great!