I'm so tired of the "traditional marriage" argument from the anti-gay marriage crowd. American straight marriages today have not been traditional for a very long time, if ever. Traditional marriages were based on strategic alliances, involved dowries and buying and selling young daughters to much older men. If you want to be ultra traditional, then polygamy is the way to go. Look at the Bible's Abraham -- Sarah wasn't the only one he was sleeping with. Tradition also dictated things such as forbidding to marry outside your religion or ethnic group.

Since the 1700s, the Western marriage revolution has been young people dating, falling in love and choosing their own spouse. Defining marriage as a contract between a man and a woman is ugly and empty. It goes back to the days of dowries and bargaining, of marriages without love. Las Vegas drunk quickie weddings, abusive spouses, shotgun weddings, gold digger weddings and divorce are what is destroying marriage. Any two people deeply in love and willing to commit to spending their lives together, come what may, are protecting the values of American marriage.

Claire McManus

senior-international politics