With all the fighting over the legalization of gay marriage, I thought I would inject a little common sense into the debate and make a suggestion that I see as a win-win for both parties.

Statutory marriage has only existed in the United States since the late nineteenth century. Its only purpose is social engineering, so I proposed returning marriage to the private sphere, thereby relieving the state of its responsibility for administering, certifying, regulating, or mediating marriage.

Here's why this works.

1) We reduce the size of the bureaucracy.
2) There is no implicit or explicit mandate for private individuals, churches, or organizations to recognize the unions.
3) Gay couples can choose from a wide variety of privately chartered, professional secular or religious ministers to perform the service for them and provide them with a legally binding contract that outlines the parameters of the partnership.
4) Religions are free to perform or abstain from performing the ceremonies.
5) Corporations with private charters can set their own policies and let the market reward or punish them accordingly for their level of accommodation for gay marriage.
6) The contractual relationship between gay partners can provide for hospital visitation, inheritance, coordination of benefits, etc without the state injecting itself to deny rights to anyone.
7) Freedom and liberty are expanded for everyone, giving all parties a voice and a choice.

There you go...problem solved.