Personal

It seems that Monday's post was seen by some as homophobic and anti same-sex marriage.  If you look back through my previous posts on the subject (just put "same-sex" into the search box above) you will see that I have nothing against the idea of same-sex couples formalising their relationship - I just don't think we've gone about it the right way.  So - in what I hope will be my last post on the subject - here's where I stand -

1. I don't think it is a right and proper use of legislation to change the long, long, long, long-standing definition of words.  "Marriage", "husband" and "wife" have definitions going back hundreds, even thousands of years.  Many words have changed meaning over the years, but they have done so through usage - I don't think you could or should seek to impose a change of meaning through legislation.
2. I don't understand what those agitating for same-sex marriage are seeking to achieve.  You already have civil partnerships which have all the rights and responsibilities of marriage.  What will marriage give you that you haven't already got?
3. I've a feeling that what is behind all this has little to do with marriage as such, but is more a matter of status.  I think that in the majority of cases what these couples want is to be able to officially describe themselves as married. When they come across an official form which asks for marital status, they want to be able to tick the box that says "married".  When they are asked, officially or informally whether they are married, they want to be able to unequivocally say "yes".
4. If I'm right about this, it seems to me that we've used the proverbial sledgehammer to crack the nut.  We could have achieved the result set out in 3 above without the need to mangle the language and upset the traditionalists.  All that was needed was an official pronouncement (suggest it could have been done by Statutory Instrument under the authority of the Civil Partnership Act 2004) stating that for all administrative and bureaucratic purposes the expression "married" includes those in a civil partnership - and there you are!

Sorry for such a long post, but I feel I need to set out exactly where I stand on this matter.  Absolutely nothing against civil partnerships, but don't like the idea of same-sex marriages for the reasons given.