lilithu
The Devil's Advocate
If the rights are the same, there is no functional difference.Out of curiosity (and forgive me if this has been addressed previously) but what difference, if any, do you see between marraige and civil union?
However, one is still left with the question of why one group of people can get "married" while another group of people can only be allowed "civil unions." To draw an analogy with the Civil Rights movement, even if separate but equal were truly equal (and obviously it was not), there would be the question of why things were separate in the first place.
Different people may respond to this hypothetical differently. Some may decide that since it's functionally equivalent that's good enough, because there are more pressing inequities to address. And I think that argument would have merit. But for me, even if separate but equal were truly equal I would push for integration. I would argue that such distinctions being codified into the law imply a difference of status and thus encourage people to view the two groups differently.
I used to be in the "marriage, civil union, why fight over words?" camp, because I did not want to waste energy fighting over semantics and because marriage is considered to be a religious sacrament. However, over time I've come to notice many examples where religious groups already make a distinction between the religious sacrament of marriage and civil marriages. If they already are capable of making the distinction, then the "marriage is a sacrament" argument loses a lot of validity. And since they are capable of making the distinction for other groups of people (atheists, divorcees) but not gays and lesbians, that to me suggests that the objection isn't about protecting marriage so much as being against gays and lesbians.
If there were/are religious groups arguing that we should ban all civil marriages and that everyone should have civil unions and you can get "married" in your respected houses of worship, I would support that. So far as I can tell, there is very little support for this solution. And ultimately we have to go with policies that people will support.
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