2011-01-18, 01:58 PM
Kurtle Wrote:Marriage or civil union. Marriage is a union recognized by the church. Civil unions are recognized by the government and allow the sharing of bank accounts, etc. I support civil unions but not marriages.
This is the fundamental issue, as Fiel said. The bottom line is that people can "get married in City Hall." By the government. A marriage like that is something all LGBT should have access to, whereas a "marriage" within the foundations of religion is up the religion.
In other words, it doesn't matter what you call it so long as any LGBT couple can be united under the law and receive all of the same rights and responsibilities of marriages in the United States as all other "married" couples. Another way to think about this is to say that the end result, legally, should be the same for all couples, regardless of gender/sexual orientation, but the path of obtaining such legal results (whether under the name "marriage" in religious institutions, or "marriage and/or civil union" in legal) is up to the person.
As a personal comment, I find it sad that people are too hung up on the idea of "marriage" to allow two definitions of the term. I wish the world could sit down and agree that there are two forms of "marriage," which both legally give them same benefits and responsibilities, but one that is conducted in the foundations of religious institutions, and the other in the halls of government. It's frustrating to me, though being a confirmed Catholic I can understand the animosity towards dividing the term of marriage into two separate yet equal entities, when it's a sacred sacrament in many religions.
So this more disorganized post in conclusion: call it whatever you want so long as at the end of the day marriage in religious institutions and marriage in government institutions are seen equal with regards to legal rights, and highlight the unconstitutionality of forbidding certain groups from marriage in government institutions within the democracy of the United States. If all that was done the only sadness that would remain would be for highly religious LGBT couples unable to get married within their faith, but unfortunately that's not up for the people to decide.
Oh, and best video ever on this debate:
[video=youtube;dCFFxidhcy0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCFFxidhcy0[/video]