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Justin Raimondo vs. Jonathan Rauch on Same-Sex Marriage

TAC contributing editor Justin Raimondo will be discussing his essay “The Libertarian Case Against Gay Marriage” and debating Jonathan Rauch of Brookings on the subject next Tuesday, April 16, at American University in Washington, D.C. The debate begins at 8 pm and takes place in AU’s Mary Graydon Center, Rooms 4 & 5. Here’s a […]

TAC contributing editor Justin Raimondo will be discussing his essay “The Libertarian Case Against Gay Marriage” and debating Jonathan Rauch of Brookings on the subject next Tuesday, April 16, at American University in Washington, D.C. The debate begins at 8 pm and takes place in AU’s Mary Graydon Center, Rooms 4 & 5.

Here’s a sample of Justin’s argument:

Extending the authority of the state into territory previously untouched by its tender ministrations, legalizing relationships that had developed and been found rewarding entirely without this imprimatur, would wreak havoc where harmony once prevailed. Imagine a relationship of some duration in which one partner, the breadwinner, had supported his or her partner without much thought about the economics of the matter: one had stayed home and tended the house, while the other had been in the workforce, bringing home the bacon. This division of labor had prevailed for many years, not requiring any written contract or threat of legal action to enforce its provisions.

Then, suddenly, they are legally married—or, in certain states, considered married under the common law. This changes the relationship, and not for the better. For now the property of the breadwinner is not his or her own: half of it belongs to the stay-at-home. Before when they argued, money was never an issue: now, when the going gets rough, the threat of divorce—and the specter of alimony—hangs over the relationship, and the mere possibility casts its dark shadow over what had once been a sunlit field.

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