Quote:
Originally Posted by buggyone
I would like to ask you what you believe is the difference between a civil marriage ceremony of two straight people (man and woman) and a civil union ceremony between two gay people? Since both have the same intent then both are marriages, aren't they?
Shouldn't both be afforded the exact same legal rights in the unions?
Leave religion out of the equation. That would be up to an individual church to decide if they will do a religious ceremony for gay couples.
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No they are not the same. When you differentiate the two as one being a marriage and the other is something else, then they are different. Either everyone gets a marriage or everyone gets a civil union. Do you expect a wedding proposal to be "will you union me?" When two people love each other and want to spend the rest of their lives together they get married not unioned. Any attempt to relegate gay marriages to some other term than marriage gives that relationship a second class status and is IMO insulting. And my opinion has nothing to do with religion and I would not compel religious institutions to perform religious rites if it objects. How do you react to the option to have only the civil authority performs marriages and churches may provide religious unions (but we don't call them marriages). Or how about we let all of the ceremonies whether civil or non-secular whether straight or gay, whether same race or interracial (that was illegal in most of the US until my lifetime) ALL of them be marriages and wish the couple happiness.