Originally posted by jsobecky
I will give that question right back to you:
If property rights, etc., can be achieved via civil unions, why are gays so adamant in their desire to be called "married"?
But in quoting
Me, you answer your own question:
Originally posted by Bhadhidar
Obviously, as most in our society can recognize but ill-define, the contract known as "Marriage" carries some additional cache, some unique
"gravitas" within the context of our culture.
And, in fact, go on to make the case!
Originally posted by jsobecky
As it should be, since it is a deep committment, not only to each other, but to any offspring of the relationship. The laws have been written to
recognize this.
"The laws have been written to recognize this (deep commitment)."
Originally posted by jsobecky in reply to Bhadhidar
Originally posted by Bhadhidar
Obvious also, to proponents and detractors of same-sex marriage, is the recognition that, within our society, rightly or wrongly, Only those
who are allowed to marry (whether they choose to marry or not) are considered to be fully-fledged and endowed members of our society.
Incorrect. Unmarried people are also considered full members. As are widowed or divorced.
Are you being purposefully obtuse here?
The qualification, as stated, is
"Allowed to Marry":
-Unmarried people, if they are hetereosexual, are, generally,
allowed to marry (A homosexual would be unlikely to enter into "a deep
commitment", as defined as and by a "marriage", with a person of the opposite gender.).
-To be widowed, one must have
been married at the time of the death of the spouse.
-Divorced people, obviously
have been married, lest how would they come to be divorced?
Originally posted by jsobecky
It is a term. A descriptor. A designation with boundaries. A definition in the dictionary.
You can call a glass of water a soda all you want, but that doesn't make it so.
And by such things are our lives governed and made manifest!
You, yourself, have already stated the recognized fact that in our society, our culture, and our law, "Marriage" has been established as status
apart from all others. You, yourself, have argued the appropriateness of such regard based, at least in part, on the "deep commitment" the term
marriage engenders.
If our word for a glass of water was, in fact "soda", then "a glass of water" would
not satisfy a request for a "soda"!
It is what it is. You (all) have made it so. You have stated so.
Originally posted by jsobecky
Mother Therese was a full member of society.
Mother Therese was a nun, an assumedly heteosexual woman who could (ie.: would have been allowed to) have entered into a hetereosexual marriage had
she so desired.
In point of fact, as a nun, Mother Therese was considered to have been
"A Bride of Christ", and therefore, it could be argued that she was
in fact "Married". A marriage not only acknowledged, but revered, by a large portion of the our society.
Originally posted by jsobecky
And a final question: What do you bring to society's table that two single people do not bring?
I hope you are addressing this rather impertinent question, facetiously, to married hetereosexuals reading these posts. That you are trying, impishly,
to bring into question the vaulted status of marriage in a modern society.
I would certainly hope that you are
Not expecting anyone, gay or straight, who, by mere virtue of being born into this society, has an
expectation of fair and just treament under the law, to petition for those rights based on their presumed value to the society.