Fear not, you have an influential ally in the media:
Liberals stand for tolerance, magnanimity, community spirit, the defense of the weak against the powerful, love of learning, all American values worth conserving.
-- Garrison Keillor
The entire purpose of the societal sanctions around marriage have always been to look after the children and make sure the woman wasn't pitched into the street penniless when her looks were gone. Since society can no longer muster the coercive force to do these things, since the religious and cultural sanctions no longer hold, they are done by the state.
That's the way it works. Not some fantasy world of two people just working out a contract.