Can two men marry? A marriage is a contract between a man and a woman. If that’s the extent of marriages then it’s impossible for a man to marry a man. However, since marriage is a contract and everyone has the right and freedom to enter into a contract then two men or two women can promise to marry, regardless of your or anyone elses idea about marriage being limited to one man and one woman. It’s that simple.
What about the Catholic Church?
It will refuse to marry two men or two women. That means the two men or two women will have to go elsewhere to get married. In fact, for a contract to be valid and recognized by the common law, it must include seven elements—1. an offer. 2. Acceptance. 3. A consideration. 4. The intention to create legal relations. 5. Authority. 6. Capacity, and 7. Certainty. There is no requirement about how or where these contractual elements can or should occur.
Without these seven elements, a contract is not legally binding and may not be enforced by the courts.
Notice that two people can do all of that by themselves. There may be additional considerations. Most places seem to demand a license to marry but that can easily be argued against using the idea of a contract. No one needs a license to engage in a contract. The lack of a license from government to marry is a legal issue therefore attention by an attorney should be sought if the marriage is to be registered with the government. What about regitering it with the people? An announcement that two people have carried out the seven elements of a marriage and that they are married would seem to satisfy all of the requirements of being married except for a license. Registration of a marriage is the downstream result of getting a license and having the marriage witnessed. Are there ways of getting married without a license? Yes. A marriage and the registration of the marriage are two separate things. You can figure out for yourself and by yourself what you can do about it. For the moment it is noted that getting a license puts one under the control of the party that issues the license. Be careful when you do that. A marriage license is not like or similiar to a license to drive which seems to grant a person permission to use the roads. There are plenty of people who don’t grant the government the power to permit people to use the public road system and the police and the judges seem to have a lot to say about that. OTOH these ideas involve the idea of freedom and individual rights but pr so don’t take any of this as a safe and/or a final conclusion about using the roads or getting married. It’s certainly less hassle to comply with the government than strike out on a different path. Be careful what you do.
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