Finally, the LP gets my viewpoint...

Took a while, but the Libertarian Party is finally able to articulate my view on the gay marriage argument I've been saying for years now.   You don't have to be FOR or AGAINST the government allowing gay marriage, you have to get government OUT of it.  :)  We're so worried about forcing people to live the way we live, because our way is "right" and they're "wrong"...that's not freedom.   That's slavery.

America’s third largest party Monday praised officials in Iowa, Vermont and the District of Columbia for taking recent steps toward marriage equality, and urged legislators in all states to scrap government licensing, taxation and regulation of marriage.

“The government’s power to define marriage has historically been used as a tool to retaliate against minority groups, and the right to marry is the newest frontier of civil rights.  Libertarians everywhere applaud this advancement of civil rights, but warn the only way to guarantee true marriage equality is to get government out of the question entirely,” said Catherine Sumner, LBGT policy advisor for the Libertarian National Committee.

“Removing government from the equation entirely allows gay and lesbian couples to enter into the same legal agreements and arrangement as heterosexual couples, and it would allow individuals and businesses to decide for themselves who to grant the benefits of marriage to,” said Sumner.  “No individual, straight, gay or lesbian, should be forced to accept someone else’s definition of marriage.”

The "right" of marriage? Not in at least 3 states.

Irony:  As of 1961, there were 16 states with anti-interracial laws still on the books.  Two people who wouldn't have been allowed to marry back then (in those states) are the parents of the man now elected to run the country.  So now, the gay community sees it all over again.  California, Florida, and Arizona voters decide to tell people how they can love each other.  Watch as Keith Olbermann gives an emotional defense.

While I believe marriage is not a "right" from a libertarian perspective, the government should be out of marriages completely, and only recognizing all as "civil unions" for tax/property purposes if necessary.  The question is not "should gays be allowed to marry?", but "why should ANYONE ask permission of the government to marry?".  That's the only way I see this resolved.  I didn't want to apply for a marriage license....it's a contract between two consenting adults; the government is merely an intruding third party.