MARRIAGE

While Doyle's record bothers me, gay marriage is not a big issue for me. If pressed, I come down on Andrew Sullivan's side on the matter, but I do have one problem with allowing gay marriages or civil unions.

I am somewhat hesitant about allowing gay marriage because I'm against automatically granting married gay couples the taxation or fiscal benefits that come with marriage. I'm against giving such benefits to childless heterosexual couples as well. Marriage, gay or straight, is a lifestyle choice and the state has no business in encouraging a lifestyle choice or penalizing another.

Bachelors and many cohabitating couples couples essentially carry a heavier burden because they can't, for instance, tweak their income tax forms by declaring joint household income.

If couples have a child, an argument could be made that they should be eligible for some benefits because the state should look out for the interests of citizens who can't take care of themselves – in this case that would be the child and not the parents.

Another point, not often made, is that married couples are generally happier than single people. By having benefits for married couples, the state is effectively granting benefits to happy people at the expense of unhappy people – something that should seem wrong even to socialists.

As noted by Gregg Easterbrook in this week's TNR:

If significant numbers of gays and lesbians begin to wed, the 100 million single people may become more dismayed that still more people wearing rings get special deals while they do not. Equally important, for every gay or lesbian pair who weds, winning benefits, a couple of single people must be taxed more to fund these benefits. Benefits can't just be demanded; someone must provide them. Marriage benefits for gays and lesbians will not come from the pockets of those in traditional one-man-one-woman unions. The benefits will come from the pockets of the single.

For me, the solution to this would be to roll back entitlements granted to all childless couples, which would eliminate the only real objection I have to gay marriage.