[ansel12]

Marriage has always had to be legal, or it didn’t count outside of the people who were rooming with each other.

You can do what ever you want in private, and call it whatever you want, but if you want it to be legal, then it has to be legal.

No one forces people to “marry” according to law.

[Steve_Seattle]

"Marriage has always had to be legal, or it didn’t count outside of the people who were rooming with each other."

Why - particularly in this day and age - does marriage need to be "legal"? The state does not say that only married people can live together, or have sex, or have children, so why should there even BE a LEGAL entity called marriage? All of the moral and social reasons for it have been disputed by - and mainly abolished - by liberals. Why shouldn't churches just perform marriages as a sacrament or religious vow, without registering with the state?

[Lurker]

“Marriage has always had to be legal”

Wrong. States didn’t begin licensing marriage until the 19th century.