Quote Originally Posted by Standing Wolf View Post
There's a not-so-little problem with that. The status of being married changes literally thousands of things from a legal standpoint - from who is assumed to be the father of a newborn child to who is empowered to pull the plug on a coma patient. The word "married" is almost universally used in those statutes. If you want same-sex couples to "have equal rights under the law", the M word pretty much has to be applied to their unions, or it doesn't happen.
I agree. It's just a word, yet, in our laws, it affords so much. "Partners" have been kept from visiting their loved ones who were in intensive care. Children brought into these unions were not protected if one parent died intestate.

My mother got frustrated once over Ellen calling her wife, "wife." My mother thought that if Ellen was calling her the wife, that must mean Ellen was identifying herself as the "husband." I explained that, no, there are "two wives." She thought about that and then brightened. Once she got past the word issue, she seemed more accepting.

It's just a matter of time.