During the second day of a widely watched federal trial on same-sex marriage, an expert on the history of marriage testified that its central purpose historically was not procreation, but the creation of stable households.

Harvard professor Nancy Cott, who has written a book about the history of marriage in the United States, told a federal court in San Francisco that child rearing was only one of several purposes of marriage, not “the central or defining purpose.”

“There has never been a requirement that a couple produce children in order to have a valid marriage,” Cott testified, adding that George Washington, the father of the nation, was sterile.

Cott was one of two expert witnesses quizzed Tuesday as foes of Proposition 8 tried to make the case that it violated federal constitutional guarantees of equal protection and due process.

Read the rest of Maura Dolan’s LA Times article here.