Mike on SSM

One of the weblogs I like to read the most is Cold Fury. The author, Mike Hendrix is a fellow biker (though he might argue that I'm not a *real* biker as I don't ride a Harley) and he always presents a down-to-earth and practical viewpoint. He posts about same-sex marriage and the proposed Constitutional amendment here and here. These two paragraphs from the first post caught my eye (emphasis mine):

Gay activists are speaking of marriage as if it were a fundamental human right, one whose abrogation calls for the strongest possible resistance as a matter of simple human decency. But is it really? My off-the-cuff answer is that it isn’t, not at all. Marriage as it has been traditionally understood is a function of churches and state governments; it’s something that carries the stamp of religious and state authority, which is one of the primary reasons I’ve never had any personal interest in subjecting myself to it. I want as little state and church interference in my personal life as I can manage, thank you, and have never felt the need for any lawyer’s, bureaucrat’s, or priest’s official seal of approval on my romantic attachments. I forego certain benefits because of this attitude, but that’s my choice, and so far I’ve stuck with it, although that may not always and forever be the case. It doesn’t stop me from loving anybody, from being truly committed to any relationship, to living my life in the way I choose to live it. It doesn’t, and it hasn’t, and it won’t.

I can understand the point made by the SSM advocates: I’ve made a choice not to bother with the institution of marriage freely and without much in the way of restraint (even though living with someone out of wedlock is still illegal in my state), but I can also change my mind about that. They can make one choice but not the other. They don’t think that’s fair, and they’re probably right. I can’t really see how allowing them to make a similar choice will threaten the institution in any meaningful way. The institution of marriage has probably been battered and bruised more by no-fault divorce and meaningless Hollywood marriages that are undertaken as much for publicity’s sake as any other reason than it ever will be by two people in a long-term relationship who happen to be the same sex being allowed access to it.