It is time for marriage to be removed from the legal statutes altogether. After all, in the modern world, what has Government got to do with human partnerships at all?
By all means protect the rights of children so that they can be raised in a safe and loving environment, but with so many children born out of wedlock the law has already had to evolve to handle the many exceptions to children being raised by a married couple (man and woman). So why not just drop the term marriage completely?
Marriage could stay as a separate civil and/or religious custom outside of the law in which case it could adapt as society progresses. Then everybody would finally be free to form sexual and non-sexual partnerships as they saw fit rather than be constrained to social mores that grew by the necessities of yesteryear.
Anyone want to try multiple partners forming cooperatives to raise children? Brother and sister to live together in a sexual relationship where on is sterilised to ensure no children can result? Who is to say that any of it is wrong?
