Originally Posted by
gaystoryman
Why call it marriage?
Because to call it something else you foster racism and open the door to abuse and other restrictions. Either you are married or not, to call it less than marriage is to allow others to point fingrs, saying one is getting something extra, and thus make it open to curtailment or outright restrictions. If it is called marriage, you can't restrict the rights for a minority, as it applies to all.
Call it civil union and you can easily restrict survivor benefits for civil union partners, without effecting any married couple, you can restrict the legal recourses for civil union partners while not touching married folk, and it is in that common goal that rights you win now, you keep. Calling it civil union or civil partnerships merely keep the door open for some puritan religious zealot to slam the door, without a whimper from anyone else.
Then there are the legal implications. Marriage connotes one thing, civil union another and some jurist can easily pass judgement that would not be even considered if the couple were married.
Marriage is what it is, to call it less than that is to diminish the rights and lay those rights open to being only partially applied. :kickcan: