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What is Marriage?
ROBERT GEORGE, SHERIF GIRGIS, & RYAN T. ANDERSON
Marriage understood as the conjugal union of husband and wife really serves the good of children, the good of spouses, and the common good of society. The arguments against this view fail while the arguments for it succeed.

I. ................................................................................248

A. Equality, Justice, and the Heart
of the Debate .........................................................248

B. Real Marriage Is – And Is Only – The
Union of Husband and Wife........................................252

1. Comprehensive Union ........................................253 2. Special Link to Children ......................................255 3. Marital Norms ...................................................259

C. How Would Gay Civil Marriage
Affect You or Your Marriage? ......................................260

1. Weakening Marriage ............................................260 2. Obscuring the Value of Opposite‐Sex
Parenting As an Ideal ..........................................262 3. Threatening Moral and Religious
Freedom ...........................................................263

D. If Not Same‐Sex Couples,
Why Infertile Ones? ...............................................265

1. Still Real Marriages..............................................266 2. Still in the Public Interest......................................268

E. Challenges for Revisionists .........................................269

1. The State Has an Interest in
Regulating Some Relationships? ............................269 2. Only if They Are Romantic?....................................271 3. Only if They Are Monogamous? ..............................272

F. Isn't Marriage Just Whatever
We Say It Is? ........................................................274

II . ...............................................................................275

A. Why Not Spread Traditional Norms
to the Gay Community? ..........................................275

B. What About Partners'
Concrete Needs?.....................................................280

C. Doesn't the Conjugal Conception
of Marriage Sacrifice Some
People's Fulfillment for Others'? ................................281

D. Isn't It Only Natural?...................................................284

E. Doesn't Traditional Marriage
Law Impose Controversial
Moral and Religious Views
on Everyone?.........................................................285 Conclusion......................................................................286

"What is Marriage?" with footnotes

What is marriage?

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