Skip to main content

Are civil partnerships equal to marriage?

As same sex civil partnerships come into force in the UK I keep coming back to the question - is this equality? Living in Massachusetts for two years and seeing marriage equality coming into force there, I'm decidedly uncomfortable with the compromise of civil partnerships. I seem to be the only one in this country who is not happy that civil partnerships are not exactly the same thing as marriage. But perhaps I am wrong, maybe this is equality, just with a different name (that seems to be what the news coverage is saying). Am I being silly and ungrateful for not being happy with civil partnerships? Maybe they are giving exactly the same rights as marriage so its being pedantic to complain this isn't marriage.

I think what bothers me is phrases like 'gay marriage' and 'gay weddings' with their inverted commas. There's something about putting the phrases in inverted commas that says - these aren't real marriages or weddings, but silly, fake 'gay' ones. I think the separatism confirms homophobia. If I marry a woman I want a wedding (in church) and a marriage, and if I happen to marry a man I want a wedding (in church) and a marriage, not a "gay marriage" (civil partnership registration).

Am I the only person bothered by this?

Comments

Joseph Santos-Lyons said…
we may never see true equality on this one, as with other identity based oppression
12:51 am
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Swords into Ploughshares

  "They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." Isaiah 2:4 Palestine Action are doing just this: beating swords into ploughshares i.e. putting weapons out of use. In doing so they are fulfilling this biblical mandate. They are expressing God's peace as expressed in the Jewish tradition and the Christian tradition. God desires that our swords shall be beaten into ploughshares, that we should unlearn war. That the government wants to make this action illegal has to be confronted in the strongest terms. To rush to condemn attacks on weapons but not attacks on children is perverse. To call attacks on weapons terrorism but not attacks on children is perverse. When government comes to such an extreme position - legislating that peace is war, that weapons need more protection than children - then they have fundamentally gone wrong. This is the definitio...
Post a Comment
Read more

Art Lester

  I've just heard the extremely sad and shocking news of the death of Unitarian Minister Art Lester. It shocked me even more as I was emailing him a few days ago as he spontaneously emailed me thanking me for my book and offering to send me a copy of his latest one (pictured above).  I already feel like I've missed the opportunity to get to know him better, as he's the kind of person I would really have liked to have been a mentor as he always seemed wise and spiritually rooted, in a mischievous, not-taking-himself-too-seriously way (which is a good sign of spiritual maturity I think).  He ended his email with, "I attach a portion of a sermon I’ll be giving at the Paris Fellowship next month.  It’s my 29th service over the past 27 years and possibly my last.  I wouldn’t normally bore a colleague with my scribbles, but I think you might like this one."  I do. I do like this one. And as he now won't deliver this at Paris Fellowship I thought it was worth shar...
1 comment
Read more

Is humanism theologically tolerant?

OK, well this might be controversial, but I feel the need to say it. Is humanist tolerant? Please note I'm not asking about humanism within society. Clearly humanism certainly believes in tolerance within society and I'm forever glad they are often the only people in the media calling for a separation of church and state. No, what I'm talking about is descriptions of Unitarianism like this and adverts like this , discussed at Peacebang here , which say that humanism is one option, Christianity is another, God is one option among many. The trouble is, humanism, by definition is theologically opposed to theism. This is very different from the relationship between Christianity and Buddhism. These two traditions may be vastly different, but Buddhism, by definition , is not opposed to Christianity, and Christianity, by definition , is not opposed to Buddhism. But humanism is consciously defined in opposition to Christianity and theism. So to say that humanism and theism can bot...
14 comments
Read more