All you need to do is look in one state’s code of statutory laws to see that it is the state that defines marriage. Ergo, your info is not accurate.
Way to ignore the content of the post. Responses like this make me chuckle
If the actual basis of your argument is wrong, then the rest of your post is superfluous.
Youre staying because it is in the law today, that yesterday means nothing. I disagree. The basis of your argument is wrong. Thus, the rest you say is superfluous.
Hey, i like this. I think I will use your debate technique more. LOL
I’m waiting for you to break out the word “admiralty.”
Im waiting for you to enter the discussion with something other then obtuse statements
(My bolding). They do? ‘Many’ states, and actual civil unions that confer the same rights as marriage?
I understand the arguments against ‘separate but equal,’ but several of my friends have really benefited from the UK civil partnership laws which really are equal in all but name.
And I’m gay, btw; if I had a partner from another country I’d rather have been able to let them live with me in this country under civil partnerships than wait an extra ten years for the sake of a word.
You I like.
For me, very quickly and in Vegas. If there’s a next time, it’ll probably be something quick and dirty outside, at city hall, or something else non-churchy. Something really small, no more than 20 people, we’ll make it official, then perhaps the next day comes the giant celebration bash with the open bar and DJ. I stole the idea of having a small hassle-free wedding that is entirely separate from the shit show of planning a party from a friend. Figured that was a good idea as it takes a lot of the stress off your wedding.
My wedding was as stress-free as humanly possible, and I like it that way. Total planning time took something like 3 days, and I didn’t do any of it. Yup, the man did everything. Go me!
Actually, this would make everything worse. You’d have the conservatives up in arms that gays really HAVE destroyed marriage.
The number of straight people who don’t want to surrender their marriages to the church is going to be a far stronger constituency than you seem to expect. Marriage has been established as a civil matter lang before the United States was founded. This idea of surrendering the word to the religious right is not going to fly.
I can’t speak to Cliffy’s experience, but here in Minnesota there are several (a dozen or so) municipalities that recognize civil unions or “domestic partnerships,” but the rights afforded by that recognition fall far short of those conferred upon married couples. Cite. These benefits are usually limited to “registering their commitment” with government agencies for the purposes of benefits of employment, so there is not even a pretense of equality, separate or otherwise.
And now, back to your* regularly scheduled bickering over religious versus civil law.
*general “you,” not directed at SciFiSam.
“Many” was imprecise. Plus, a number of those that did have since converted to recognition of actual marriage.
But obviously recognized civil unions with legal rights are better than nothing. No one’s suggesting they aren’t. But one person on this thread purports that a civil union that’s marriage in all but name is equivalent to marriage. And that is false.
–Cliffy
My husband and I (both atheists) got married in our synagogue.
I may be dumb but what is the fundamental difference between marriage and civil union?
From a legal view are they the same?
So if it’s all but equal to marriage but name, why not just call it marriage?
If panther’s all but equal to mountain lion but name, why not just call it mountain lion? I bet some people already do. 
It’s a matter of preference.
I always wish we’d gotten married 150 feet underground, on a heart shaped ‘marriage rock’, in Howe Caverns in Upstate NY. We’d never been much for churchgoing, I stopped when I started high school. So I was indifferent as to whether we got married in a church, Howe Caverns, or by an Elvis impersonator in Vegas. Mundanely, we got married by a JP on a Saturday morning in her home with my mother in law and my best friend from high school who lived nearby (I had called her on impulse after not communicating for over 15 years and she was so surprised she naturally said, “I’m so there!”). It was a short ceremony by a very nice woman, in her dining room with a hundred decorative plates on the wall and her two dogs in quiet attendance. Then we went to the nearest Denny’s and had coffee and sausage gravy over biscuits and coffee, and that was my wedding. We wore our best work outfits, I had a honkin’ big ring, but I forget if I had any flowers. I should have had flowers.
Yes, but in the UK, the civil marriage is defined by the national government, applies uniformly across the country, and has been made equal to marriage.
In the US, civil unions are defined by some states, and not recognised as marriages by the federal government, so they aren’t even “separate but equal.” Separate, yes, but not equal.
Your OP pretty much pissed me off - not for what it asked, which if you grew up in a WASP based culture is perfectly ok. Rather for what it assumed.
Its phrased totally within a Judeo-Christian framework.
There are far more traditions, customs and cultures around the world than getting married in front of the Christian job, some will be based on “religion” (which you didn’t take the slightest effort to define), others more on custom and community standards and having little to do with religion.
Your question smacks of a very narrow and one dimensional view of the world that demonstrates the very worst of small town, religious knowledge and upbringing.