Same sex 'marriage' is currently in the news and at least one political party is considering allowing a consience vote on the issue.

I really could not care about peoples living arrangements, but my dictionary defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

If that is correct, why use the term for same sex union?

Could not some smart wordsmiths come up with a word or words to mean same sex union.

Why redefine and confuse a word that everyone knows what it means?

swedenberg defined much about the spiritual marrage
[ie why are we here]..we are here because
a living egg married with a living sperm.

but it goes much deeper
than mearly marrying a sperm..with an egg

but im reluctant to explain it better
as we are living in a world gone mad

we see that the..*same ratio*..of smokers as non smokers
get cancer..[in other words smoking isnt a cause of cancer]

but just like we spin
the marrage of lies with truth
we are selective in near everything we do

like you will have heard..that smoking cannabis CREATES phycosis
ie 2 in 100..will get phycosis by smoking hemp
yet ammoung the NON smokers its 4/100

but it goes deeper
we hear of crime..and the marrage of criminals
like you can rape..but if you make the raped person..LOOK like a liar
its not rape

or you can STEAL by fraud..our compulsory super
but thats not crime..cause no one important..*complained

but it goes deeper
[this mar-RAGE of spin]

you can say your card got stolen
but if the union...dont complain,,it can bail you out
and no crime..no question

it gets even better
with poker machines just now..we hear that people..[victims]..should be complaining...ie listen to the victims..not the lobby

but hey most people dont complain..!
cause they KNOW..complaining or explaining dont change nothing

but it goes deeper..we got athiests
needing to undermine religeon..wanting to make human being extinct
ie not breeding..needing to denigrate the meaning/intent of marrage

but hey dont worry
here we can talk..set the adgenda
lets talk about the deciets..[the faux marrages]
and miss the fuller reality..we just might find UNDER the spin..if we did talk about..the true marrage

the marrrage of spirit

but no that is too deep
for shallow minds to concieve
believe what youwant to believe

Dear Banjo,

As I've written in the past - each society views
its own patterns of marriage, family, and kinship,
as self-evidently right and proper, and usually
God-given as well. Much of the current concern
about the fate of marriage and the modern family
stems from this kind of ethnocentrism. If we assume
that there is only one "right" marriage/family
form, then naturally any change will be interpreted
as heralding the doom of the whole institution.

My definition of marriage is - it's a
universal institution that involves two adults
living together, engaging in sexual activity and
cooperating economically. However, there are many
variations to this definition - and many exceptions
as well.

It is important to recognize, therefore, that there
is an immense range in marriage, family, and kinship
patterns; that each of these patterns may be, at
least in their own context, perfectly viable; and above
all, that marriage, like any other social institution,
must inevitably change through time, in our own society as
in all others.

What is happening in our society is that we are
increasingly tolerating a variety of alternative marriage
and family styles. The hallmark of our society is our
economic and cultural diversity, combined with a highly
developed sense of individualism. In this environment
people tend to make decisions about marriage, divorce,
abortion, child-rearing, and the like in terms of what
they, personally, want - rather than in terms of
traditional moralities, obligations to kin,, or the other
impersonal pressures that previous generations
unquestioningly accepted.

Pursuing their own vision of self-fulfillment, or
responding to the social and economic predicament in which
they find themselves, many people are modifying the
marriage/family system to suit their individual needs.

Significantly, some of the variant marriage/family
patterns are becoming recognized, formally or informally,
by such official agencies as the Bureau of the Census,
the state and federal courts, the Internal Revenue
Service, and government welfare departments.

It is
therefore apparent that we are moving to a situation
in which variants of marriage/and family will simply
come to be taken for granted in the future.

20 years ago I would have made an insulting remark and said no.
Now politicians, in many country's,some who never went to a church in their lives, make it an issue.
Sex has been controlled from the pulpit for too long, sometimes at the hands of child molesters.
In my view,every parliamentarian should have a free vote on such issues.
This ensures the pending lie, Greens force Labors hand, can not find air to breath in.
And I favor every one, considering if not religion what grounds do we have to continue to tell some who they can live with?

Dear Lexie and Belly,
The World is changing, of that there is no doubt. There are also many reasons why people become homosexual, some of which are borne from a difficult home life as a result of a domineering parent, others can be a result of genetics, there are many reasons, which can be viewed on Google. Love is the most powerful emotion, and if it suits two people to formalise their love for each other, then so be it. I think we will see a trend in the future, whereby populations are more forgiving, I can remember when it was scandalous for white people to marry dark people, they called it 'mixed marriages', thank heavens that we have come a long way from that.
Enjoy your day my two friends,
NSB

Lexi and NSB,
As I said, I do not care if it is a same sex union or whether it is right or wrong.

If two people of the same sex want a union recognised under law that is fine.

My only concern is with the word. The word marriage now has one meaning, so why go and give it multiple meanings.

There was/is a TV show on ABC called 'Can We Help' and a woman appeared every show that seemed to have great knowledge of words, their origin, their history and their meanings. I bet such a person could come up with words meaning same sex union and with reasons of tradition and/or history, origin, etc. Maybe even different words for male unions and female unions.

All it would take then is for State governments to make the unions recognised in law.

I think there is enough words now with multiple meanings, so I am perplexed as to why we would want to make another.

I am all for keeping things simple, as I have found there is less to go wrong. Giving a word multiple meanings is just making it more complex. One word for each type of union and listeners know exactly what you are talking about.