The media is widely reporting tonight’s North Carolina vote as a “same-sex marriage ban.” But Ryan T. Anderson correctly characterizes the vote differently. He explains:
Today’s vote in North Carolina is not about banning anything. Nothing will be made illegal as a result. In all fifty states across the nation two people of the same sex can live together, have their religious community bless their union, and have their workplace offer them various joint benefits — if the religious communities and workplaces in question so desire. Many liberal houses of worship and progressive businesses have voluntarily decided to do so. There’s nothing illegal about this. There’s no ban on it.
What’s at issue is whether the government will recognize such unions as marriages — and then force every citizen and business to do so as well. This isn’t the legalization of something, this is the coercion and compulsion of others to recognize and affirm same-sex unions as marriages.
Read the whole thing. The latter sections of the article give some compelling rebuttal to Vice-President Biden’s concept of marriage.