"Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, nor the free exercise thereof. . ." -Should have been the very beginning and and of this argument. It has always been legal for people to practice or abstain from any religious practice, and to say so, and to come together peaceably.

Simple, clear, concise, and very wise, the very first amendment made to the U.S. Constitution is there to protect the citizenry from religious tyranny. When government tries to tell its people whom they may or may not marry, that tyranny is present. Whatever else you might want to say about it, marriage is a religious rite (read: Right). The federal government has no business even so much as speculating that it has any power to determine what should go on between any two (or more, for that matter) people and their minister, priest, or deity.

Where we get into trouble is that the distinction of marriage as an institution of a religious nature has been muddied so thoroughly. For the first two hundred years of our existence as a sovereign and independent nation, free from rule by kings or pope, marriage was simply recognized as a common, traditional practice. With the exceptions of certain religious fringes which allowed polygamy, no reason was ever presented that required further scrutiny, and so the rite and praxis of marriage became entrenched in law and policy, almost without any notice at all.

Now, for the first time in many centuries, homosexuality as a lifestyle has itself risen to become common practice as well. So much so that persons who chose to proclaim and practice the ritual bond of mutual commitment in homosexual relationships have managed such public prominence as to awaken the forces which are compelled to combat them. Unfortunate, but inevitable. Some folks, in the free exercise of their religion, are compelled to enjoin, and proselytize, and enforce certain behavioral mores on everyone around them. Fortunately, our Constitution has been worded very specifically to prevent them doing so by process of law.

Now, what further muddies the issue, is the discriminatory laws and policies which favor or handicap married persons. Every married person I know gripes about how they are taxed for their relationship. Even things like finding jobs or housing are affected by marital status. From this angle, one wonders why anyone would go around demanding marital rights; it seems at first glance the gripe would be the right not to declare

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