“Protecting the interests of children is the primary reason that government regulates and licenses marriage. After all, government does not license or regulate any other form of intimate relationship – not friendship or dating. People are free, under the law, to live as they choose.

“But marriage is a special relationship reserved exclusively for heterosexual unions, because only the intimate relationship between men and women has the ability to produce children.

“By encouraging men and women to marry, society helps ensure that children will be known by and cared for by their biological parents. Marriage is society’s mechanism of increasing the likelihood that children will be born and raised by the two people responsible for bringing them into the world – their mother and father.”

The words of Rachel Lee, communications director for Vote FOR Marriage NC, a coalition of Amendment One supporters.

Sorry Rachel, my parents failed to get a license before having me. Perhaps that’s why I’m a vocal supporter of marriage equality? Rachel’s underlining logic automatically places some one like me in a “lower” category. And despite my “radical” views on equality – I would argue that I contribute the same, if not more, to my community as my friends and colleagues who were “licensed babies” do.

It’s okay to be a bastard. It’s okay to be gay. It’s okay to be straight. And it is okay for anyone to want to marry.

This issue is not about raising children – it is about equality.