I have to wonder what Michelle Lamont means when she says that “marriage was originally a Biblical tradition” (“Family matters,” Oct. 28). To claim that somehow marriage is derived solely from Judeo-Christian principles is blatantly false and ignores the traditions of marriage from pre-Biblical societies as well as the independent marriage traditions of all other cultures including many Asian and Native American societies.
Marriage is not a religious rite demonstrating the love between two people, nor is its sole purpose to create a union for procreation. Fundamentally, it is a legal contract carrying with it specific rights bestowed upon a relationship by a society. These rights in our society include, among hundreds of others, inheritance, visitation, and divorce rights.
Civil unions as currently stated are not sufficient to bestow these rights upon homosexual couples, primarily because they are often not legally recognized inter-state. The simplest, and most just, way of changing this unconstitutional practice is through allowing same-sex couples to marry, and be granted the same legal status as heterosexual couples.
Kevin Welch
GSAS 2007
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