Membership

Human societies are obsessed with membership. In a way of looking, that’s all we do: going to the church, climbing the corporate ladder, moving into the right neighborhood, buying the season tickets, joining the gym, etc. We work hard to hang out with the right people. This behavior started at kindergarten and continued until the day we die.

Almost all those memberships have clear self-centered reasons: economic power, social status, information access, business opportunities, etc. Some memberships exist, however, for only prejudicial reasons: Jews pollute human race, color-people are dirty, women have smaller brains, etc.
Of those, the most ridiculous one is the ban on gay marriages.
What is the harm for them to be married? Who get hurt?

I have several gay/lesbian/bi/trans friends. They are nice, smart, sensitive, and over-all good people. Their “divorce” rate is generally low. Some adopted kids who all grow up perfectly heterosexual. They managed to have legal rights akin to marriage through a myriad of legal transactions. The only thing they do not have is a piece of paper certifying them as such.

The membership of “marriage” is completely symbolic. It has social-economical purposes only to those who married to each other, and no one else. Whoever believes marriage should be defined only as a man and a woman please explain why this membership should be so strict. By the way, human beings did not practice such for thousands of years and God did not say so in the Bible.