Same sex marriages

[DSJ]

With new laws coming in shortly, will they apply to all faiths & their places of worship? I haven't actually read the fine details yet.

[Davethedog]

The only thong the CofE is doing, is showing themselves, to be bigoted.

Someone stated that in the verse(s) that say you shouldn't be gay there are other things that the church ignores, so they are being selective bigots.

Bible says judge and ye shall bejudged etc so let people marry and see if god doesn't like it.

If gay people want to spend their time, going off to the OH relatives and pretending they like it, saying lovely at some concoction, doing DIY on weekends, who the hell is anyone to stop them.

[rowanwitch]

DtD you forgot arguing over whose turn it is to drive to the pub, who gets the remote, whose family to go to for christmas.... trust me gay couples do that without being married

[jake-the-peg]

Descrimination aganst gay and lesbian people should be outlawed in all state institutions.

It's simply not acceptable in this day and age and the vast majority of people that way.

That doesn't mean that all religions have to respect that perspective

But while the church of England is the church of the state they should.

If they can't follow the will of parliament and the people they will have to bow out of being the established church

And then they can get their bishops the heck out of the House of Lords

[Quizmonster]

I'm an atheist, so the religious element here is of no consequence to me; however, I agree with one or two of the respondents above who draw attention to the LINGUISTIC element. The Oxford English Dictionary's primary definition of 'marriage' is "the condition of being a husband or wife." It is perfectly plain, therefore, that the word cannot legitimately be applied to a same-sex relationship.
Why the fuss? Why can't the people who want such a partnership create some other more loosely-defined word to name their relationship?

[Quizmonster]

The bishops should have been "got the heck out of the House of Lords" long ago! The C of E is the established church only in ENGLAND, so their presence in the UK parliament is an absurdity.
It's also a perfect response to English people who whine on about the West Lothian question...ie a group consisting solely of Englishmen who legislate for Scotland.

[Zeuhl]

But definitions change

Not so long ago, in UK the definition of a 'voter' was a male property owner over the age of 21'

[AliceTickband]

personally I can't understand why same sex couples would want to be married in a church as most (not sure if it is all) religions abhor their lifestyle.

Perhaps someone could enlighten me.

[ChuckFickens]

Read the thread, it will answer your question.

[Davethedog]

Rowan straight couples don't need to be either :-)

Thing is someone once said "If Gay folks want to be as miserable as straight folks, go ahead and let them get married" but I would feel a fraud as I have been married a long time and I have always been happy, with the marriage, not with everything :-)

[JOBOBABE]

Quizmonster... "the condition of being a husband or wife."
Yes... a husband and a husband... or a wife and a wife!!!

[Quizmonster]

Jobo, I COULD go and look up the definitions of the two words for you but I won't bother, given that in this context one is exclusively male and the other exclusively female...hence the word 'or'.

[THEMOTLEY1]

With you there QM, jobo's only contribution so far, a misquote.

[mushroom25]

rather ironic, isn't it, that an organisation that was set up to permit Henry VIII to divorce an inconvenient wife, now claims to be defending the estate of marriage.....

[jno]

Henry was after an annulment rather than a divorce. He claimed he'd been misled into believing his wife's earlier marriage to his brother hadn't been consummated; now he thought it had been, which would make his own marriage to her no marriage at all. In effect he too was defending the estate of marriage.

[Answerprancer]

"Why can't the people who want such a partnership create some other more loosely-defined word to name their relationship?"
Did you think the same way when people used the expression to describe the pairing of socks QM ?

[Quizmonster]

AP, the OED lists six definitions of the verb 'marry', one of which refers to 'matching' things such as socks. Clearly, I have no objection whatsoever to using the word thus so, yes, I did "think the same way". However, we are not here discussing the pairing of inanimate objects; we are considering a profoundly meaningful human commitment with a long historical background in social and linguistic terms.

Let me be clear, I am not objecting to homosexual people wanting an equal form of relationship with heterosexual people; all I am objecting to is their demand that such a relationship should be called 'marriage'. What about 'wedlock', for example, which comes from Old English words meaning putting a pledge into action?

[Quizmonster]

I should, of course, have said "no I didn't" rather than "yes I did" above.

[mushroom25]

it would appear that the government's assertion that religious institutions would be exempt, would not stand up before the full force of the european court of human rights.
http://www.telegraph....-place-in-church.html

[jno]

oh dear, it would outrage a lot of ABers if the church was forced to bow the knee to those wicked Europeans and their ooman rights.

[woofgang]

I have said on another thread that I dont see any problem with same sex marriage provided that churches are not forced into it. BUT what i would like to see is the legal protections of civil partnership being extended to other kinds of partnership eg sibs, parent child or just non sexual partnership friends.