Reply #47: Not what I'm saying at all [View All]

[tishaLA]

taking vows away from a religious institution is hardly anything more than registering--it is the equivalent of swearing on a Bible. (And, of course, some religious ceremonies don't require clergy to perform ceremonies, i.e., Quakers.)

Unless a couple chooses to make their marriage sacred after the ceremony, it has NO content other than the contractual secular one. To claim a relationship is "spiritual" is not to say it is religious, nor is that understanding of marriage something all married couples believe in (I would say it is a kind of ideological colonialism, really). We still have marriages of convenience, dynastic marriages, and forced marriage; many people of all classes are in these relationships.

Gov'ts should be out of the marriage business, but only when heterosexuals are willing to disavow all the benefits that come with marriage. Until then. let queers have the same rights and stop looking for ways out of giving queers the same rights non-queers already have.