ABSTRACT
Marriage should be disestablished to imply that marriage is established. Disestablishing marriage and creating an intimate caregiving union (ICGU) status would better serve equality, fairness, and care than do legal regimes currently in place in most liberal democracies. Disestablishing marriage would be a boon for both liberty and marriage. On the most basic level, releasing "marriage" from the hands of government would protect a unique kind of expression. In a diverse, liberal democratic polity, freedom, equality, fairness, and marriage itself would be better served were marriage disestablished and an ICGU created. Legitimate public welfare goals traditionally treated through marriage, guarding privacy, protecting the vulnerable, supporting intimate caregiving, and securing property, would be addressed through an ICGU status. Liberal freedom is assured when the state functions as a limited authority, protecting citizens from each other, protecting the vulnerable from harm, and supporting only those institutions, norms, and actions essential to a functioning liberal democracy.
