The ban against same-sex marriage in South Carolina has just been overturned by Circuit Courts. Barring further legal action, Colleen Condon and Nicholas Bleckley will soon be granted a marriage license from SC.
I'm happy to see that most of my fellow South Carolinians have come to their senses. Homosexuality is a real thing. There is such a thing as gay people (or bi or whatever). They're just like that. So what?
Marriage is a common law contract that helps simplify a complex legal relationship between two people. Much like an S Corp or LLC, a marriage contract allows citizens to opt into an existing legal construct, encompassing issues like: life insurance, medical insurance, estate division upon death, custody of children, and much much more. Marriage contracts have a lot of judicial precedent behind them, and this is useful for all citizens.
How could one legally justify denying gays the right to form a marriage contract? It would be exactly the same to deny them the right to form an S Corp or LLC. These common law contracts were designed to make it easier for citizens to make legal connections. Marriage is perhaps the most pervasive and useful contract in Earth's history. To deny the right to such a contract is a massive penalty. WHY?
Consider the history of judicial precedent regarding marriage contracts: Imagine a single case where the judgement would be different if the married parties were the same sex vs. opposite sex. Take a sec, and really think about this... The are few such weird cases, and they make no difference. Marriage law is essentially unaffected by allowing same sex partners,
I see no legal justification from the anti-gay folks, just references to their moral and religious beliefs. Folks need to mind their own business. I think it proper that the SC law was struck down on Constitutional grounds.
[I put brackets around "Gay" in the title because I find it ludicrous to talk about Gay Marriage vs Straight Marriage. Marriage is marriage, as far as the State is concerned.]
Thanks for reading,
--Dan Edge
