I will point out that many libertarians, generally considered to be conservatives, feel that marriage of any sort is none of the government's business. They believe the government should stay out of it and leave it to churches, synagogues, mosques, whatever... Since there are churches and synagogues which perform same-sex marriages they wouldn't object to that.
If marriage is a holy sacrament, is that really the business of government?
Food for thought...
Actual conservatives don't consider libertarians to be conservatives.
If marriage is a holy sacrament, is that really the business of government?
Marriage licensing has been a function of government in England (where nearly all American common law derives from) for nearly 800 years. NOBODY was suggesting otherwise until the libertarians decided to side with militant homosexuals a few years back.
Many libertarians are anarchists, not conservatives.
I saw an ex-FReeper who hailed himself as a libertarian bragging on another forum that he supported homosexual marriage for years on FR under that very guise that you’re advocating, that the government shouldn’t be in the business of defining marriage.
The problem is, by insisting that the government not define marriage, it IS defining marriage. What people don’t want is that the government define marriage as between one man and one woman at a time. So they insist that the government not define it, which means that the government by default DOES define it as anything goes.
It is just as much as the other "moral" oriented laws that find criminal sanction against murder, homicide, fraud, theft, libel, all of which are biblical prohibitions.
Marriage predates government and religion. Prior to the existence of government, if I married a woman, the rules were pretty simple. You (bleep) my wife--I kill you.
Such rules no longer work when governments forbid people from killing other people without a governmentally-recognized reason. It thus becomes necessary for government to provide some recognition of a marriage, so as to restore the check on adultery which government itself had removed. What's important to note, however, is that while the marriage has both governmental and religious significance, its real significance is far more fundamental. Government must recognize it, but does not create it.
Government is only necessary when natural laws are broken in any arena of life.
Regarding marriage, government exists to safeguard abandoned, abused or neglected children and/or abandoned spouses, heirs, and/or family members who are (or become) disabled.