Redefining Marriage ~ Ye Gay Ol’ Valley

lesbian-same-sex-marriage2By: Dani Langavin – November, 2014

Allowing same-sex marriage has not redefined marriage. Marriage has been redefined over and over and over again. It is constantly transitioning and to blame same-sex marriage on its redefinition is ignorant and shortsighted at best. Yes, marriage has been around for a long time, but it has not been what DOMA has defined it to be.

Marriage was not seen as necessary thousands of years ago. What I mean by that is, there was no legally or religiously mandated ceremony that a couple had to participate in when they decided that they needed each other to survive and made a verbal contract to do so. Marriage ceremonies were reserved for the rich and powerful and were made to strengthen alliances, increase wealth and ensure bloodlines. This meant that often times adult men were married to very young girls who could be their half-sister, cousin, niece or some other distant relative.
There was another interesting discussion on Facebook thanks to Tom Duggan about the definition of marriage due to some asinine judge granting a marriage between a woman and her mother’s half brother. It seems to me this judge was following historically traditional forms of marriage. Even in the Bible there are several accounts of cousins marrying cousins. And yet somehow this judgment was linked to the allowing of same-sex marriage.

Advocates for ‘traditional’ marriage say that marriage is between one man and one woman. Do any of them read the Bible? This is their beloved text they thump to make their point sound more valid and pre-ordained by God. In reality, there are countess men in the bible who practiced polygamy: Abraham, Caleb, King David, Solomon and Moses just to name a few. That’s only scratching the surface. How’s same-sex marriage looking now? I would think monogamous and normal.

Marriage became monogamous some time back in the fifth or sixth centuries. This was when there was a major power struggle between kings and the Church. Kings argued that they should have the right to take on a second wife or more. Why not? It was okay for a plethora of men in the bible. The Church argued that they should not. Which surprises me considering the prevalence of polygamy in their Holy Book. Eventually the Church would win this argument so after about 5,000 years plus of polygamy NOW it’s all about one man and one woman.
I will agree that the church believes that if a couple can procreate then it is their obligation to do so. However, if they cannot the church historically has not granted an annulment. With that being said the early church did grant annulments to marriages where the man was incapable of having sex with his wife. You go early church! You knew the important of sex. So, since same-sex couples can’t procreate but can have sex their marriage is just fine.

In regards to ‘monogamy’, the rules were different for men and women. It was quietly accepted that men could and probably would practice infidelity, but it was shameful for a woman to do the same thing. Men’s infidelity and wandering ways were actually protected or at the very least tolerated by law that did not treat women equally. This changed in the 19th century when laws started to become more equal for married men and women. These laws of equality really didn’t kick in until about 45 years ago when the Divorce Reform Act of 1969 was passed. This allowed for no fault divorces. As a result, less than 20 years later divorce rates skyrocketed to 50%. I would say it is divorce that really redefined marriage.

Polygamist marriages, incestuous marriages, arranged marriages and marriages of all types have always existed. As stated earlier, it is out of sheer ignorance that anyone can blame same-sex marriage on opening the door to other types. Here you have centuries of historical fact that shows marriage has never really been between one man and one woman EVER. Even your wonderful Bible that so many use to mask their ignorance and falsely inflate their justifications, proves marriage has never been about that. Perhaps it is all of these other types of marriages that opened the door to same-sex marriage instead of the other way around. Now, class is dismissed!