The Meaning of Marriage

There should be no doubt that marriage no longer means what it once meant, at least not to many people especially on a rampage on social media.
A cause of change has been “no fault” divorce laws that began in 1969 and in California then spread across the country.
That of course was long before same sex marriage was legalized in Massachusetts in 2004 and across the United States by a Supreme Court ruling in 2015.
Some people say same sex marriage caused the change, but a better description could be that same sex marriage put the final nail in the coffin of the meaning of marriage which was long lost.
Setting all that aside, how exactly did marriage change and why? A very good understanding of the change is how an exception became the rule.
Long ago marriage meant publicly announcing a partnership and the responsibilities of those partners to each other and any children their union might produce. It eliminated the need for government oversight.
A significant exception was made for children who lost their parents to some calamity. They were allowed to be “adopted” and the relationship to their adoptive parents was virtually indistinguishable from the relationship they previously had to their biological parents. That exception still makes very good sense.
What happened over time though is that marriage vows failed so often, and government had to step in and manage things so often, that the original meaning of keeping government out of the process was lost. Marriage then meant an invitation to government to manage it all. You can encounter people on the internet now who will claim that marriage is not about children at all, that is not unless the government gets involved somehow.
You might notice that some of the people lamenting the loss of the meaning of marriage are the same people complaining of too much government in other areas also.
As things now stand same sex marriage means exactly what heterosexual marriage means, nothing. It means you can do whatever you like providing the government approves.