A lot of people seem to have gotten their hopes up over the California legislature’s recent passage of a bill to legalize same-sex marriage. Schwarzenegger, who’s been sitting on the fence, now promises a veto. This will disappoint many. But if you were governor, pushing your agenda via an increasingly unpopular initiative process, having called a special election which will cost local governments an estimated $45 million, would you dare act to overturn the “people’s will” as expressed in proposition 22?
Even as a monogamist heterosexual, I don’t accept the premise that government should be involved in marriage, be it for heterosexuals, homosexuals, monogamists, or polygamists. Marriage is a religiously defined institution, and each religion should be free to marry whom it wants under the circumstances of its choosing. Yes, there will be abuses. But deal with the abuses as abuses; don’t confound them with marriage.