Two weeks before California declared banning same-sex unions unconstitutional, the state senate in Pennsylvania tabled a bill banning gay marriage. Since PA has no law allowing same-sex couples to marry, the bill would seem to be a moot point, or worse, a blatant attempt to legislate bigotry. Those who wrote the bill claimed it protected the sanctity of marriage between man and woman. However, the Republican dominated Senate tabled the bill largely because of an amendment introduced by Senator Vincent Fumo (D-Philadelphia). This amendment proposed to outlaw divorce.

This ingeniously highlights the problem: Blaming marriage troubles on gays and lesbians doesn't really protect marriage from anything. Same-sex couples marrying do not threaten the sanctity of marriage. Really, not all same-sex couples want to marry, anyway. Those who do wish to marry have few, if any, options, in most of the U.S. While many states offer limited rights, through domestic partnerships or civil unions, only Massachusetts offers marriage. Outside of MA, such marriages are not recognized.

In the PA amendment, divorce would be legal only under extreme circumstances: Desertion, cruelty, endangerment, bigamy, or indignity. Beyond that, nothing could render a marriage null and void. Preventing divorce, as barbaric as it may sound, accentuates the real travesty of marriage, its trivialization by the general population. According to U.S. statistics, posted by the CDC on its web site, 3.6 (per 1,000 population) divorced in 2005. With so many married people divorcing, why deny one group who wants the ability to marry, when the only group allowed can't seem to abide by the sanctity of its own institution?

If the argument against same-sex marriage is contingent upon raising families, then what is to be done about married couples who can't or don't raise children? Are they shirking responsibility? Should such marriages be rendered illegal for not fulfilling a non-legal and unspecified reason for getting married? Should we deny marriage to the infertile?

Some claim biblical reasons for preventing same-sex marriage in this country. This is rife with problems. Arguments fly back and forth regarding the accuracy of those interpretations. Sodom and Gomorrah may or may not depict a place destroyed for homosexuality. Leviticus certainly mentions restrictions regarding same-sex lovemaking, but the reasons for the restrictions are debatable (Are they instructions for daily life or preparations

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