One of the definitions of "marry" means, to unite or join. You can marry two pieces of electrical wire together. You can marry two pieces of wood together, etc.
Nothing about sex there. :) The word Marriage is a noun. 1 a (1)*:* the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law (2)*:* the state of being united to a person of the same sex in a relationship like that of a traditional marriage <same-sex *marriage*> b*:* the mutual relation of married<http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/married>persons *:* wedlock <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wedlock> c*:* the institution whereby individuals are joined in a marriage2*:* an act of marrying or the rite by which the married<http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/married>status is effected; *especially* *:* the wedding ceremony and attendant festivities or formalities 3*:* an intimate or close union <the *marriage* of painting and poetry J. T. Shawcross> So, IMO, you can't take the word marriage and give it only to one sector of the population. (although maybe it is the best idea yet) Perhaps you can differentiate between the two as: Civil Union Marriage (all types) Religious Marriage (man & woman only) Because isn't it religious marriages that everyone (or religious sectors as a whole) is in an uproar about? I don't know any non-religious people that care whether same sex marriage exists or not. Course having said all that - I don't know any practicing Christians, Catholics or other religious people that are in a same sex relationship. And after having said even that: I really don't know what the heck I'm talking about, the thoughts just occurred to me in a prgramming haze, and I spewed. On Sun, Dec 14, 2008 at 9:50 PM, Mary Jo Sminkey <[email protected]>wrote: > > Maybe we should just agree to leave "marriage" as the term for a union > between a man and woman and come up with some other thing to call a gay > union that will give them all the same civil rights while taking the whole > "marriage means a man and a woman" argument off the table. Maybe that would > make everyone happy. > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:282684 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
