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Protect equal civil marriage, religious solemnization, voluntary divorce, parental stewardship, children's developing agency, transparent schools, and consent-centered family formation.
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AI-researched, unverifiedLast Reviewed
Jul 10, 2026
Cited Sources
9
What is failing, what we would change, and the conclusion we are willing to defend.
Family life needs freedom, commitment, and a boundary against domination. Civil marriage should remain open to two consenting adults on equal terms, including same-sex couples. Religious bodies retain complete control over whom they solemnize or recognize within their faith. Government administers a civil status; it does not write a sacrament.
Marriage must remain voluntary after the wedding. Preserve no-fault divorce while enforcing duties to children, fair property division, support, and protection from coercion or violence. Private cohabitation among consenting adults should remain lawful. Recognition of plural civil marriage should wait until a workable system can protect equal consent, exit, support, inheritance, benefit allocation, and children across more than two spouses.
Parents are the primary stewards of a child's upbringing. Stewardship is authority held for a child's development, not ownership of a child. We propose:
Codify equal civil marriage and religious autonomy. Preserve the Respect for Marriage Act, require equal state licensing, make parentage and benefits sex-neutral, and bar government from compelling a religious solemnization.
Protect continuing consent. Keep unilateral no-fault civil divorce available after notice and a fair process. Enforce support, property, custody, and safety duties without making one spouse prove moral fault to leave.
Create a parental-stewardship standard. Treat parental direction of upbringing, education, and ordinary care as a fundamental liberty. Government may intervene for concrete abuse, neglect, denial of essential education or medical care, exploitation, or comparable danger, using the least restrictive effective response and prompt judicial review.
Make schools transparent and plural. Publish searchable curricula and materials before use. Provide practical notice and opt-outs from discrete, substantial moral or religious instruction, including the elementary instruction governed by Mahmoud v. Taylor. Do not create opt-outs from mathematics, ordinary science, accurate history, basic civics, nondiscrimination, or the fact that different families exist.
Govern assisted family formation without controlling pregnancy. Adopt uniform parentage and gestational-carrier rules: adults twenty-one or older, independent counsel, medical and psychological screening, transparent compensation, escrow, insurance, parentage determined before birth, and the carrier's nonwaivable authority over medical decisions and pregnancy.
A child's voice receives increasing weight with age and maturity. A credible report of abuse triggers protection; ordinary family disagreement does not. Parents lead. Children grow. Government protects the boundary and keeps the exit open.
Turn frustration into useful pressure.
If this position misses evidence or a lived consequence, challenge it. If it holds up, help test it locally and connect it to the issues around it.