"Marriage" specific to everyone

I often hear the one-sided claim that marriage is a religious term. In fact, the etymology of the English word "marriage" goes back 800 years to the Latin word "maritus," and, over time, it has become the universal English term for a ceremony uniting people as a family unit in a cultural and legal sense.

Historical fact aside, the claim that marriage belongs to churches reveals an ignorance of, and/or attempt to dismiss the fact that Jews, Hindus, Muslims, atheists, etc. all use the word "marriage" to describe this union. Even among religious bodies, marriage does not signify the same thing: reform Jewish rabbis routinely perform same-sex marriages as part of their faith.

Marriage is a cultural term, not owned by any one group. We, the people of the United States, have chosen to support the creation of family units by giving civil benefits to people who establish those units. We, as a citizenry, have chosen to call that union marriage, and we restrict it in certain ways.

For example, were a priest of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster to perform a "marriage" of a box turtle to a telephone pole, the government is not obliged to provide hospital visitation rights or special tax status to the box turtle or its "life-partner."

Proposition 8 on its own is simply another restriction, but combined with the laws that give the same civil rights and benefits to gay "civil unions," it produces two government-established entities which are civilly equal, but separate in name.

With that in mind, I find myself pondering a different question: What are the consequences of undermining Brown v. Board of Education through exceptions to the abolishment of the separate but equal doctrine?

Andy Ewing

Pratt '10