Leave marriage to the churches

Re “Down with marriage,” Opinion, June17

I applaud the legislators in Alabama and Oklahoma for efforts to return marriage to the private sector and remove it from the state. I have maintained for some time that issuing licenses with the same legal protections and privileges as marriage licenses to domestic partners— married or single, gay or straight— should be the duty of the state.

Doing so fulfills our nation’s constitutional commitment to treat everyone fairly and allows the private sector, including churches, to define marriage and to determine who should or should not be married according to each church or denomination’s beliefs. Jini Cockroft

Los Angeles