The court rejected the state's arguments, including its chief one, that "marriage's primary purpose is procreation".
Massachusetts officials, for their part, in criticizing the court's decision, maintained that the purpose of marriage was procreation, that children were better off in male-female unions, and that gay unions would pose a burden to the state.
The key to marriage, he said, is procreation.
He also called marriage "a privilege, not a right," for the purpose is procreation.
The purpose of sex is procreation within strict conventions, maintained by unbending social rules and selected religious doctrine.
Our current paradigm of sexuality is based on the unexamined assumption that the purpose of sex is procreation.
There are "procreation vacation" packages for couples who need to relax and get away in order to get busy.
"The essential factor of marriage, which is procreation, which is raising children, which is replenishing society, has never changed," Mr. Kuhle told the court.
Liberal justices seemed unimpressed with the argument of opponents of same sex marriage that the central purpose of marriage is procreation, arguing that many marriages cannot bear children.
A considerable amount of the questioning from the bench on Tuesday focused on whether the central purpose of marriage is procreation.
