Reply #32: It may not be to you. "Marriage" IS both a religious and legal state [View All]

[MercutioATC]

in this country, however. Therefore, we are faced with choices:

1) Keep things as they are, and deny GLBT couples legal recognition of their union.

2) Allow everybody to get "married" under the current LEGAL definition of marriage, regardless of orientation.

3) Use separate terms for the religious and legal recognition of unions. Let religion have "marriage" and they can't claim that the government is trying to force them to recognize an institution tht their religion forbids. Let ANY couple have a "civil union" that would grant LEGAL status to the union.

By removing the "gay marriage/straight marriage" distinction and classifying solely by legal/religious status, we eliminate a possible "separate but equal" scenario.

Again, to answer, your marriage may not be religious to you, but the "married" label means different things to different people. Clarifying the issue by assigning different terms to "religious" and "legal" states would help, in my estimation.