The persons who are directly involved or interested in any act, affair, contract, transaction, or legal proceeding; opposing litigants.......Persons who enter into a contract or other transactions are considered parties to the agreement. When a dispute results in litigation, the litigants are called parties to the lawsuit. U.S. law has developed principles that govern the rights and duties of parties. In addition,
principles such as the standing doctrine determine whether a person is a rightful party to a lawsuit. Also, additional parties may be added to legal proceedings once litigation has begun.
Parties
Obergefell, (page 15 of Opinion)
Obergefell v. Hodges | Obergefell V. Hodges | Fourteenth Amendment To The United States Constitution
Under the laws of the several States, some of marriage’s protections for children and families are material. But marriage also confers more profound benefits. By giving recognition and legal structure to their parents’ relationship, marriage allows children “to understand the integrity and closeness of their own family and its concord with other families in their community and in their daily lives.”Windsor, supra, at ___ (slip op., at 23). Marriage also affords the permanency and stability important to children’s best interests.
So, there it is. Obergefell announces that the marriage contract involves children and provides "profound" benefits directly to just them.
As all parties agree, many same-sex couples provide loving and nurturing homes to their children, whether biological or adopted. And hundreds of thousands of children are presently being raised by such couples. See Brief for Gary J. Gates as Amicus Curiae 4. Most States have allowed gays and lesbians to adopt, either as individuals or as couples, and many adopted and foster children have same-sex parents, see id., at 5.
Actually, for all parties to agree, they would have had to have representation briefing the Courts all along the way saying so. Such was not the case. In fact, the most important parties to the marriage contract were never, to my knowledge, invited to have their own unique representation briefing any court on any of these marriage/adoption type cases since they began. That is in direct violation of the Infancy Doctrine's protection for children deriving benefits or necessities from contracts they share with adults.
Infancy Doctrine Inquiries.pdf
(Page 8 of PDF Page 53 of actual document; at the bottom paragraph)
..Food, clothing, shelter, and medical expenses are in the traditional category of necessities. Education also generally falls in this list. Interestingly enough, "retaining counsel in criminal proceedings" has also been upheld as a necessity and "under extraordinary circumstances," counsel in a civil suit can be as well.