WELL: Sara asks for thoughts on this post. I sort of object to this:
"The state's interest in marriage is in the quality and stability of the environment in which children are raised."
I might say it's something more like that the state's interest is in maintaining the quality and stability of potential environments for children, but mostly I object to the implicit assumption about the state, society, and how laws are made. It's true (maybe) that some abstract commanding entity ought to have its power to act in people's lives limited. It seems much less clear to me that this should be the case when it's society that's directing the state to make or not make certain laws regarding other people's behavior...it seems like there's potential to the idea of casting a wider authoritative net if you consider laws to be merely one (generally effective) means of holding to a certain set of norms.
"Thou shalt not extinguish thine anger, but shall master it,
that thy conscience may not be blunted by adjustment
to wrong causes."
-The Dutch Ten Commandments to Foil the Nazis
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