Re:Same-Sex Marriage Is a Right, Supreme Court Rules
by bane on Friday June 26, 2015 @01:28PM
(#9786329)
> bar mitzvahs
The government does recognize a legal "coming of age" in several cases (at least in the U.S.).
- Driving a car (restricted at 15 years and some months, open at 16)
- Entering the Majority (18)
- Can enter the military (18, or 17 with some restrictions)
- Can have Sex (rules vary by state, but is generally 16-18 with various limits)
- Can drink (21)
etc.
It just so happens that these legal coming-of-age points don't specifically align with any religious coming-of-age. The two are divested from each other due to various pre-existing cultural forces. But it's completely conceivable in some alternate universe that the two are conflated and one enters the majority legally at the same time as going through a "traditional" Sacrament of Confirmation.
Re:Same-Sex Marriage Is a Right, Supreme Court Rules
by vacri on Friday June 26, 2015 @09:31PM
(#9788703)
At first I thought of it jokingly, but it is actually related - you can add to this list minimum age for politicians: representatives (25), senators (30), and potus (35). It doesn't affect many people, of course, but it is age-based freedoms implemented by the guv.
If you believe that marriage has an important legal function, it's also not fair to preclude polygamists from getting those same legal utilities.
A much better generalized solution is to expand the purview of contract law to allow it to do everything marriage does.