On Wednesday, the Obama administration established a new precedent by no longer backing the Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 federal law that barred same-sex marriage from being recognized. The law acted as a defense against lawsuits deeming the ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional and its repeal will stop the Department of Justice from blocking those lawsuits.

In short: Why? Because, why not?

The idea that people have decided that marriage in same-sex couples is the final straw for morality is just stupid.

Do you think it’s “soiling the name of marriage?” Well, people get accidentally married in Las Vegas all the time. My friend Jess and her friends in Boston became ordained ministers of the Universal Life Church and marry each other when they’re bored and then annul them so they’re not legally binding.

Don’t think same-sex couples create a positive family environment? Too bad. Same-sex couples exist everywhere and function in every capacity except that they lack the legal rights of married couples. That means that same-sex couples often don’t have hospital visitation rights or the ability to share health insurance. It’s just mean at this point.

Massachusetts residents should also be particularly aware of how prevalent same-sex couples are. This state has both Provincetown and Northampton. Same-sex couples aren’t going away and people should stop ignoring them.

Believe couples not being able to produce children is wrong? We’re not running out of children in foster homes any time soon. Callously speaking, we have too many kids. Having same-sex couples as a major market for adopting children even helps try and combat the other thing that people who oppose same-sex marriage also hate: abortion. This way, there’s no argument over whether somebody dies in the process.

The prolonged banning of same-sex marriage in America is the most absurd policy enforced by the United States government since Japanese-Americans were put into internment camps in 1942 following the attack on Pearl Harbor. It’s one of those things that 90 percent of grandchildren will look back upon and think that we were all homophobic, the same way we think all old people are racist. Or, as a convenient article in The Onion put it: “Future U.S. History students: ‘It’s pretty embarrassing how long you guys took to legalize gay marriage.”

It’s confusing. Are there people fully expecting that there will never be gay marriage? Are there really people who are seriously pleased to go through life knowing that people who already participate in same-sex relationships aren’t allowed to marry?

Again, it’s just mean at this point.

People have marked social conservatives as on the wrong side of history, in the same way they were on the wrong side of history during the civil rights movement. That is, openly protesting that takes nothing away from those who oppose it. There’s no real point other than the fact that they don’t like it, find it icky and are religiously opposed. That is, they call same-sex marriage an “abomination,” citing a passage from Leviticus in the Old Testament, which, in fact, doesn’t mention marriage at all.

Leviticus, of course, still remains legally binding in the United States Constitution, which explicitly separates the powers of church and state, banning the following things: tattoos, touching a pig’s skin, shellfish, divorce, wearing blended fabrics and fortune telling. So, we’ve got to make sure all divorced, shellfish-eating football players wearing polyester shirts and calling fortune telling hotlines are faced with the harshest punishment.

It’s either that, or stop the absurdity that is the legal restrictions on same-sex couples. Congress did something right with the repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” which, like bringing in African Americans or women into the military will cause some issues.

But people will get over it.

This isn’t an issue of love, religion or family. It’s about titles and whether or not all people are allowed the title of marriage for their relationships. People can be opposed to same-sex relationships all they want. That is their right. But to legally bind citizens from being married because others don’t like it is absurd.

It’s just mean.

Nick O’Malley is a Collegian columnist. He can be reached at [email protected].