Gay Marriage - Words Matter
The UK government just announced that it plans to consult on legalising gay marriage by 2015, on top of the civil partnerships that have been around for a while. Many religious and conservative commentators are angry at the move, claiming that marriage is defined as a union between man and woman, and that it is somehow anti-religious to allow gay couples to be married; and that anyway, civil partnerships give them all the same rights, so they have no cause to complain.
I completely disagree with their opinion and fully back the move by the government to legalise gay marriage.
First, the argument from religion. There is a lot of difference between the beliefs and practices of all the different major religions. If marriage is at essence a religious activity, then why would Christians accept that a Muslim, or Jewish, or Hindu marriage was valid? They certainly wouldn’t count as a valid ‘Christian marriage’; just as a Muslim marriage wouldn’t be a valid ‘Jewish marriage’; and an atheist marriage in a registry certainly wouldn’t count. You must either accept that different people have different views and beliefs on what marriage is, or claim that only your own version of marriage is correct and that no others are valid.
To be equal, the law should be completely agnostic to religion or opinions. If marriage must be a religious concept, then any legal notions around it should be removed completely. Civil partnerships will be the only legal relationship, equal to all - and you can choose or not choose to call your ceremony a marriage as you want.
However, given the huge variety in religious wedding practices and the large number of completely un-religious marriages that happen every year, it’s clear that society in general doesn’t regard marriage as a solely religious activity. So that takes us the second argument - if gay people can have civil partnerships, with all the same rights of marriage, why all the fuss? They have what they want, surely?
Let’s try phrasing this another way. What if, instead of gay couples, we were instead talking about black couples? Purely white couples can get married; black or mixed couples can have civil partnerships, which give the same rights; they just can’t call it marriage! Most people would feel a pang of revulsion at such a statement. The idea of discriminating against someone because of their skin colour is anathema to most people in modern society. Well, saying that gay people can have the same rights but only straight people can call it marriage is exactly the same thing. It’s discrimination, and has no place at all in the law or society.
