# "Marriage is between a man and a woman.  Period."

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marriage-is-between-a-man-and-a-woman-period/463188>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [September 12, 2008, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marriage-is-between-a-man-and-a-woman-period/463188 "2008-09-12T00:12:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 151

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**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2008, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marriage-is-between-a-man-and-a-woman-period/463188/151 "2008-09-14T05:29:28Z")

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> [@Lamia](#):
>
> Uh, because that whole “separate but equal” deal didn’t work out all that well for black people? If it’s not the same system, they aren’t the same rights.

This analogy doesn’t hold up. Separate but equal didn’t work because you had to duplicate a complete system for education, etc., that was as good in every way as the existing ones for whites. In the case of equal rights for gays all you need would be a few specific laws. Just for an example. Allow gays to enter into a legal union called X. Than have all the rights of married couples extend to a gay couple. Seems very simple to me. Extremely simple.

> [@Lamia](#):
>
> The current idea of marriage in the US has certainly not been around for hundreds of years. The popular concept of why two people should get married and what a woman’s role within marriage should be are radically different now than they were in the past.

For much longer than 200 years it has clearly meant the union of one man and one woman. That’s simply a fact.

> [@Lamia](#):
>
> It’s only been a little over 40 years since the Supreme Court ruled anti-miscegenation laws unconstitutional, and _that_ was a pretty big change. Society has been asked to change its idea of marriage many times in the past, it’s not something that was invented by uppity homosexuals.

I don’t think that correct. Other than anti-miscegenation laws, how has it changed?

> [@Lamia](#):
>
> When?

Much sooner than if gays insist on changing the meaning of a word and concept that is deeply ingrained in our culture and brains.

> [@Lamia](#):
>
> It’s more than a little annoying to me as a woman that some people still think marriage is primarily about begetting children and that the idea of marriage should never have changed from what it was centuries ago. Excuse me if I don’t share your enthusiasm for the traditional form marriage that was practiced for thousands of years, a system under which any man who wanted to beget some children would have been able to buy me from my father and put me to work.

The vast majority of changes in marriage of the decades and centuries have to do with how that marriage came about, how a spouse was chosen, and by whom. The one thing that has not changed (a few polygamist sects aside) is that it has always been between a man and a woman. Talking about the issue of marriage with that of how women have been viewed through out the ages conflates two different issues.

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