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On the question of whether government-recognized same-sex marriage actually expands individual freedom, this post by Austin Bramwell strikes me as about right. Aside from some incidents of marriage like hospital visitation rights that might be extended more widely -- and granting that some efforts to prevent same-sex marriage are overly broad, potentially impacting legitimate freedoms of contract -- the campaign for same-sex marriage is really more about recognition than freedom. I don't want to make it illegal for people to live together, share property, or even go to their local Unitarian church and claim to be married. Proponents of same-sex marriage want the government to make me pretend I agree with such claims. And a definition of marriage that doesn't exclude some relationships is totally meaningless.