Kalley Yanta of the Minnesota Marriage Minute answers the question you sometimes hear: "shouldn't the government get out of the business of regulating marriage and leave it to adults to decide marriage for themselves?"

She answers in part:

"Marriage is not a private matter that exists only for the benefit of adults. Marriage serves an intrinsically public purpose, to provide for the care and development of the next generation, connecting children to the people responsible for bringing them into the world -- their parents. Government did not create marriage it merely recognizes it as the important public institution that it is and as such, government has no business redefining marriage..."