[mordocai]

Why are you focusing on taxes? Current government marriage is too tied to religion anyway. Make all government "marriages" be civil unions, no tax breaks but all the legal advantages such as sharing insurance and not having to testify against each other etc (this is the main point of getting married currently IMHO). Then make having kids give you tax breaks.

This should sate the religious (they can have their marriage rules and do whatever they want they just wont have legal standing, we aren't calling the legal union a marriage anymore). It should also fix your issues.

[xaqfox]

Why do we offer any legal advantages? Why do married couples deserve privileges over single or asexual people?

[mordocai]

Note that I dropped the word married here in my proposal. It would be a civil union, not marriage.

In any case, the legal advantages are things that make it easier to live together permanently. As far as I'm concerned, if we moved to my proposal you should be able to get a civil union just for that reason.

So, if two best friends or roommates want to have a civil union because it makes their life easier have at it. If irreconcilable difficulties occur, then they can sever the union in court much like today's divorces.