DOMA and Prop 8. Both History.

[Jester]

So who are you to know it is really consensual?

This is the key phrase.

Who am I to know if it is? I don't have to. We don't start from totalitarianism, and work backwards, slowly granting people the freedom to do ordinary things. The assumption is that everyone should be, by default, free to do as they please. The burden is on those who would ban a thing. You have to show that it causes serious harm to others, and also that a ban is the least harmful solution.

The marriage between cousins that is happening a lot between Morrocon immigrants in western-Europe is something we are trying to ban or to discourage. I am sure if you ask them, 99% of the women who get married like that will TELL you it is consensual but everybody knows the pressure and threats of family members play an important role.

I am not a paternalist. People will make bad choices for a thousand different reasons - and choices that you see as bad, but they see as good, or better than the alternatives. I do not feel it is my right to stop them, whereas it is their right to live a free life. I do not see the need to tell people that their education was not "reasonable," or that they have "serious cultural difficulties." I don't feel the need to tell Moroccan immigrants that they can't marry their cousins. And I certainly don't feel the need to pass laws to that effect. If a marriage is coerced, or fraudulent, then there is already legal redress for that - and I'm all for making sure Moroccan people have full and safe access to the law. But I don't assume people are being coerced, and I certainly don't ban everything on the off chance they might be.

-Jester