A License to Marry?

People don't need licenses to marry, or to "marry", and it is up to each invidual or organization that deals with couples as to whether or not they'll recognize the ceremony.

But the state has a legitimate interest in offering marriage licenses to a bride and groom, and does not have that same interest in offering one to two men or two women:

http://walrus.blogtownhall.com/2008/05/17/why_marriage_matt ers.thtml

Should the government be interested in the marriage of its citizens? Yes. I believe that if one performs an honest trace of the roots of the major problems in our society, whether secular, economic, ideologic, or otherwise, you will find that it could have been averted if every family had a strong, yet humble father and mother leading their family in righteousness and love. By saturating society with true Christ-like principles taught in a family, we could easily overcome issues of poverty, crime, infidelity, abuse, dishonesty…and the list goes on. This is an idealistic view, of course, but why not shoot for the ideal? We’ll always come up short of perfect but when you lose view of what the goal is, you have no hope of achieving anything close to it.

As we move further from this foundation of society, we will find our problems growing exponentially. Can a same-sex union provide this foundation? In short, no. Husbands and wives, fathers and mothers have unique and innate gifts, talents and responsibilities toward each other and their children. I’ve found the best summation of these ideas is in a document called, “The Family: A Proclamation to the World”. To read it, go to: http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=e1fa5f74db46c0 10VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=1aba862384d201 10VgnVCM100000176f620a____&hideNav=1&contentLocale=0

For these reasons I support the movement to amend the constitutions of our nation and states to uphold the sanctity of the marriage of a man and a woman.