Today the California Supreme Court starts hearing arguments over the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. I am very much hopeful that the right for every consenting adult to marry whichever consenting adult that wants to marry them back will one day be granted to every person on the planet, but the decision to do so should not be made in haste.

There is so much controversy over this topic that I’m afraid most people are letting their superstitious beliefs and/or anger get in the way of the actual ramifications a lift on this ban might have.

To get the ball rolling in the right direction, consider this: Gays have exactly the same rights to marriage as straits. That is, both strait and gay people alike, can legally marry people of the opposite sex. Likewise, both strait and gay people alike, cannot legally marry people of the same sex.

On the surface, this sounds like semantics, but in reality, it’s a key factor when we start talking about equal rights. Saying a particular group—blacks for instance—cannot legally marry at all, is very different than saying black people cannot marry white people, because both groups have virtually the same limitation, ie. white people cannot marry black people/black people cannot marry white people.

Now consider the reality that not all marriages are based on love or sexual attraction. No doubt, you’ve heard the term marriage of convenience? Recognizing the legitimacy of same-sex marriage is not simply granting the right for gays to marry the person they love, it is also granting the right for gay people and strait people to marry any person they choose for any reason. All of a sudden, people—ALL PEOPLE—have a whole lot more options. Perhaps these new options don’t pose any new significant ramifications.

Perhaps they do. My point is, we should probably look into it. So far, no one seems to be doing that.

UPDATE August 30, 2014

I do not agree with the premise 2008 me makes that mariage equality needs looking into before being adopted. It should be self evident that any two (or more I would argue) adulte should be ablue to marry for any reason.

I also don’t agree with the way I stated that gays have the exact same rights to marriage as straits. Obviously, the right to marry the person you love is a huge inconsistency here.

The main intent of this article was to get people thinking about how marriage equality would open up possibilities for everyone, which I still think is cool, but I’m happy that I have grown up in the past six years.