There is evidence in ancient Mesopotamia (think 2000BC) of marriage, they've found marriage contracts/agreements.
Marriage became a way for people to keep or save their powerful positions- using their women and young girls to bargain for anything from uniting a kingdom to adding more livestock to the family farm. Once married the main focus was making babies. The woman's job was to produce an heir, specifically a male heir, someone to continue the family name. And we all remember what happened to Henry the VII's wives that didn't produce heirs him... too bad the determining factor of whether a baby will be a boy or girl all lies with the dad's lil swimmers.
Once a woman was married she gave up all rights and if her husband were to die, she wouldn't inherit ANYTHING- it would all go to her eldest son.
Marriage was NOT always, as some claim, controlled by the church. In most civilizations marriage was a civil matter. In the 5th Century when the Roman Empire Collapsed the Catholic Church took over, ruling not over the church but also the government and continued to exert it’s influence for centuries. One of the Catholic Church's Seven Sacraments is Marriage, that was added to the sacrament list in 1215 and it was only later in 1500s that the church deemed weddings must have a witness and be performed by a priest.
Marriage also hasn't always been defined as one man with one woman. Men have taken multiple wives in many areas of the world, even in Biblical times you have King Solomon with his 700 wives and 300 concubines.
As evident from above marriage has also not always been about love- it wasn't until the Enlightenment and the Victorian Era that you start to see love enter in the equation of a majority of marriages.
In pre-civil war era America, slaves were not allowed to get married. Once freed, minorities were allowed to marry but it was illegal to marry someone of another race. In 2000 Alabama became the LAST state to officially legalize interracial marriage! In 2000!?!?!
DOMA was signed into law in 1996 stating that marriage was defined as being between a man and a woman. Soon after many states started fighting this and in 1999 Vermont became the first state to allow same-sex civil unions. By 2003 Massachusetts sets a precedent as the first state to legalize same-sex marriage.
In 2008 Prop8 banned same-sex marriages in the state of California.
In 2012 people showed up in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington at the polls supporting marriage equality.
In May of 2013 Minnesota became yet another state to allow same-sex marriages and today the Supreme Court Ruled DOMA and Prop8 were unconstitutional!
12 states have legalized same-sex marriage CT, DE, IA, MN, MD, MA, NH, NY, RI, VT, WA, DC, 5 Native American Tribes and today we add CA. Since 2004 the percentage of registered voters that believe in marriage equality has nearly doubled.
So what's my point? My point is that times change, opinions change, the "norm" changes, the way we see the world changes. One of the most enduring characteristics of mankind is our ability to grow, to evolve, to learn from our past.
Look at our past and where we are now. The momentum needs to keep moving forward.
When I used to teach, my students were amazed by the tolerated attitude of how many Americans treated blacks; they couldn't believe laws were signed into place limiting certain civil rights just based on the color of their skin.
I'm proud to teach Isabelle that LOVE IS LOVE and I hope that when she is my age this is a story that's taught in history class and the kids say "I can't believe people had to fight for this- don't they know it's wrong to treat someone like this?"
We've still got a long way to go, but wow it feels good to see in actions the fact that people are opening up their mind and their hearts to the idea that LOVE IS LOVE. That it is a civil right to love who you want to love and no one has the right to deny you of that and all that comes with loving that person including the right to marry them.
Keep up the good work America- you are almost there!
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