Does the California gay marriage ruling mean it’s time to reconsider ‘civil partnership’ terminology in the UK?
“Limiting the designation of marriage to a union ‘between a man and a woman’ is unconstitutional and must be stricken from the statute,” said California Chief Justice Ron George in his written opinion yesterday, as California’s top court ruled a state law banning marriage between same-sex couples as unconstitutional.
The state’s Supreme Court said the “right to form a family relationship” applied to all Californians regardless of sexuality. Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger previously vetoed laws passed by the state legislature to legalise gay marriage not once, but twice.
If only we had a constitution in the UK, then those of us affronted by the completely unromantic, cold and clumsy ‘civil partnership’ being applied to same-sex unions could push for marriage as a term applied to all state-recognised relationships irrespective of the genders of those involved.
As it stands, a huge number of gay people and campaign groups welcomed civil partnerships. I wasn’t one of them.
tags: ceremony, civil partnerships, comprehension, equality, gay marriage, inequality, love, marriage, parenting, partnerships, perception, rights, ritual, society, surrogacy
