I have believed that we should eliminate marriage entirely from the state and make people enter into corporate partnerships since I was in high school.
I saw this coming.
At the time, they told me the State had an interest because of genetics. The blood tests they preformed at the time served a vital public health interest to inform those getting married of potential reproductive issues that they need to aware of in the case of pregnancy.
If we did this, not only does it completely disarms the courts, it also opens another alternative reason to deny services to a gay wedding, refusing to service a wedding that isn’t officiated by your own church’s denomination or a denomination recognized by your church for officiating weddings.
Also, we get the benefit of introducing tax reform for small business, since every marriage would not be treated as such.
typos too
In my home state of Missouri they eliminated blood tests before marriage in the 60’s. I thought they were done to check for venereal disease, not for genetic testing.
I guess you were ahead of your times! :-)
~Theo