"Intended" by our Founding Fathers, who based most of the law's lands on the good old Bible
You just made me realize that I have no idea what the "laws" about marriage are. I've heard there's an age restriction, and apparently you need one of each gender, but what else is there? And when did these laws get written? The constitution doesn't touch on marriage, does it?
Intent needs to be read in view of time, too. The "right to bear arms" wasn't intended to put shoulder-fired rockets in the hands of citizens, I'd bet. They didn't exist at the time, so there wasn't any need to address it. Homosexuals 200 years ago didn't have any rights even socially, but times have changed.
Put another way, do you think the "intent" of prior marriage law was to exclude gays? Or was it just not considered when the laws were written?
Dave