What Fundamentally Makes a Marriage

Marriage can and should be color-blind, but it cannot be blind with regard to the two sexes.  The color of two persons’ skin has nothing to do with whether they can unite in the sort of comprehensive union naturally oriented to family life, in which the lovemaking act is also a life-giving act—the kind of union that demands permanence and exclusivity.  Race has nothing to do with whether they can give any children born of their union the love and knowledge of their own mother and father.  Race has nothing to do with society’s orderly reproduction, which the court’s preceding cases recognize as central to the fundamental right to marry.  The sexual difference between a man and a woman, however, is central to each of these concerns.  Men and women, regardless of their race, can unite in marriage, and children, regardless of their race, need their mom and dad.  To acknowledge such facts requires an understanding of what most fundamentally makes a marriage.

Ryan T. Anderson, “Truth Overruled: The Future of Marriage and Religious Freedom,” pg.70