[Shaun]

Originally Posted by SMHarman

It used to - please tell me what they are now though?

Automatic rights to my partners estate if he dies before me, the fact that I have no legal protection if we buy a house together like a married couple would. I'm unable to prove my income as I'm currently not working because I'm studying with the OU and my partner provides an income for me a the moment, and on top of that I'm unable to make any medical decisions for him if he is unable. All of which would be available to me if we were "married".

Originally Posted by Chris T

'Marriage' is at least two things in our society today. In part, it is a binding legal contract under which two people form a partnership that brings certain legal privileges and responsibilities. But there are all kinds of legal partnership that have a similar effect and none of them is known as 'marriage'. That term arises from the religious aspect of it, which stresses both the spiritual and physical side of the union - two bodies, one male, one female, literally joined together to make a whole (in Christianity at least).

Does this mean that you'd like all those who married in a registry office (specifically to have no religious interference) to not be able to call themselves married? As far as I am concerned the name given to the contract is of little consequence, I'm not at all bothered in the slightest that it may not be called "marriage" what I am bothered about is that I currently have no option to make some form of commitment that allows me the legal rights that "normal" couples (of any religion) have.

This is why there are always religious objections when the subject of 'gay marriage' comes up - according to the Christian notion of what marriage is, it is simply not possible for two people of the same sex to be married. Our society has now (sadly IMO) gone beyond being Christian, or religious at all in any traditional sense, so it is a little anachronistic to allow legal privileges to one group of people but not another. What is required is a legal framework that allows same-sex civil partnerships but which does not attempt to dress itself up in quasi-religious terminology.

I can't see that the word marriage has that many religious connotations these days, our language is a fluid thing and the meaning of words change over time. If you asked 1000 random people in the street what marriage meant to them I'd bet most of them wouldn't immediately say "Christianity".

I'm afraid that this idea that the word marriage belongs to one group of people and they have the patent to decide whats done with it is wrong, you still recognize Hindu/Muslim marriages why not gay ones?