Seeking Marriage Laws That Don’t Discriminate

A letter writer (May 21) wonders: If same-sex marriage is made legal, what is to prevent persons wanting to engage in polygamous, incestuous or underage marriage from using the “same argument” to ask for legal recognition of those relationships? He then states that no one can answer that question because, he says, there is no answer. There is an answer: They wouldn’t be using the same argument. The laws proscribing polygamous or incestuous relationships do not discriminate. No one, straight or gay, may have such relationships recognized. Not so with our laws on marriage: A discrete group of persons is denied, based on who they are, the same rights that the majority is allowed.

Mark McBride

Long Beach