Defining Marriage

What is marriage? The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decisions on same-sex marriage beg the question for courtroom and public square alike. For Robert P. George—the intellectual leader of the fight against same-sex marriage—"marriage" only makes sense when it is "conjugal": the comprehensive, bodily union of a man and a woman. I disagree. But I do so not on the hitherto standard "constructivist" basis that marriage is "just what we say it is" but in morally realistic terms George might recognize. I argue that multiple ends and norms—consent, property, friendship, and goods beyond the couple—better explain the institution than does George’s unitary conjugal view.