Gay Marriage = The End of Queer Life, from SheWired.com

Marriage is an institution of religious origin: as we know it today, it has its roots in the Late Middle Ages and was reserved for the wealthy, as a form of political and economical alliance (mostly for men to gain legal rights over the inheritance of their wives and a legally recognized heir), sanctioned by the Church in an effort to gain terrestrial power on holy grounds. It has become an integral part of modern Law and modern institutions (not without significant reforms, like the introduction of divorce granted by a non-religious court, the right of women to keep their own inheritances, and the introduction of alimony and paternal responsibilities). Furthermore, it is now a widespread practice sanctioned by all, liberal and conservative alike, as the centerpiece of our society, and a signal of social maturity (and thus it comes with especial, legal rights that include tax, insurance, and inheritance benefits)… Let’s face it, most people, regardless of their political, religious, and social allegiances, see a married couple as a couple that has made a “commitment” superior in quality (and quantity, form a “life-spam” point of view) than the one made by a non-married couple. This usually brings on a series of assumptions on the nature of both married and unmarried couples that usually effect, in a negative way, unmarried couples more often than married ones.  Nevertheless, the centuries-old institution of marriage has been in crisis almost since the day it came alive: let’s not forget that Henry the VIII already used divorce as a reason (among many others) to separate the English Church from the Roman one–and that goes only for Kings and Queens… let’s not forget the luck that most married couples have had to endure: domestic violence (penalized or not), sexual abuse (penalized or not), child abuse (penalized or not), abandonment, and, last but not least, unhappiness, to mention just some. Still, we tend to forget all this and rejoice in an institution that truly seems to be in need of serious reform or to be simply discarded… women still describe their wedding day as “the happiest of their lives” (really?!), men still believe it is a sign of their ability to contribute to society as “real men”, and nowadays the LGTB community seems to have forgotten its old position as a center of social critique and proponent of social change and has embraced marriage as the most important objective… That is not to say that LGTB people should not have a right to marry, but to question the importance and accuracy of marriage as a portrait of true commitment and love… And yet, any serious discussion of marriage centrality still provokes the ire of everybody, and it gets discarded as a possible venue of exploration: “Kay Hymowitz castigating marriage opponents and claiming only low income people and African Americans are rejecting-or failing at-marriage.” Really?