Define 'Man' and 'Woman'

[ck4829]

I see FMA Proponents and Bigots saying "Marriage should be between a Man and a Woman". I don't get it, I've looked and I can't find a legal definition of either 'Man' or 'Woman'. What is the definition of either?

[nickinSTL]

1. there is no universally accepted legal definition

And when you throw the transgendered into the mix, the FMA becomes absurd.

In Texas, there is at least one lesbian couple who are legally married because one partner is a transsexual, and Texas doesn't recognize legal gender change.

They wanted to not recognize gender change so they wouldn't have people they see as men married to men. Instead, they get people society sees as women married to women.

[tubbacheez]

2. I don't suppose religious rituals in which..

a kid symbolically "marries" the church or Jesus or whathaveyou figures into such strictly delineated fundie thought.

[CitySky]

4. actually, the church is the "bride"

in mine we have a song with the lyric:

all his power, all his life
living in the church, his wife
Alleluia

i like the God-as-husband concept, and in fact even wear a ring for it, but sometimes it takes a little adjustment for the guys. ;) total tangent, i know.

[tubbacheez]

5. How much of that lyric came from heartfelt spiritual belief?

And how much came from the need to find a good word to rhyme with "life"?



Dressing up a kid as a groom or bride in order to marry "the church" seems confusing to me.

I'm all for being loyal and true to one's religious community. But there are serious differences in the details of a 1-on-1 committed relationship versus a 1-on-many relationship (no matter how committed it is).

[sui generis]

3. it depends

some states it's chromosomal, others it's equipment related.

This has caused problems with some people who were born mixed-sex and got assigned as children; I think I even read something about it here on DU once many centuries ago.