What marriage?

Yesterday, the California Supreme Court agreed to decide the legality of Proposition 8.  But around here, the insult of election night still stings.  Anger swells under the streets, choking the city's flair and imagination.  For me, it's no longer about human rights or free love.  I've found myself ranting against the slogan of the Yes on 8 campaign:

Protect Marriage

What's there to protect?  I'm no expert at statistics, but the latest census data lists a 43% divorce rate for California.  These days, the chances of a heterosexual couple surviving the first ten years of marriage is closer to a coin toss.  What are the 'defenders of marriage' trying to protect?

My parents separated when I was in middle school.  I remember how disappointed I was when I realized that out of my class of 17 students, I would be joining the ranks of the other 8 kids with divorced parents.  They were the troubled, rebellious ones.  They knew cynicism before I could even spell it.

Now I speak from the perspective of one of those troubled, rebellious products of divorce.  What is this sacred institution that the Mormons paid so much for?  I've attended -- even participated in -- several weddings recently.  At a basic level, we come to see two people celebrate their solid friendship and merry love.  Sure, they sign papers that grant them certain political rights but that's all it is.  Where's the divine intervention?  What makes the heterosexual union so inviolable?  I think it's pathetic at best to believe something blessed in marriage would be spoiled by the inclusion of gays and lesbians.