Happy 4th anniversary for UK gay couples

[almostwitty]

From the Pink News:

"The Civil Partnerships Act 2004 gave gay couples all the rights and benefits available to straight married couples.

There are two differences. One is that a civil partnership is formed when the second of the two parties signs the partnership papers, while a marriage happens when the partners exchange spoken words and sign the register."

I'm wondering whether, if you took out the religious element about gay marriages and had gay partnerships instead (with all the other full rights and responsibilities etc.), the gay marriage debate in the US would be a lot less heated, and more likely to pass...

Comments

[grahamwest.livejournal.com]

It would not cool down at all, for two reasons.

Separate but equal is not equal, and that would really be separate-but-not-quite-equal because 'marriage' is baked into a bunch of law and 'gay partnerships' would have to special-case all of those. It's a giant hack, so to speak.

Also, the people really pushing this genuinely want gay people to have less rights than straight people. Some of them want gay people to be locked up (Mike Huckabee is in this group although he doesn't talk about it much) and a very few even want them to be executed. Those people will not accept any compromise.