Civil

This is not the first time I've written about this.

Marriage should be a religious ceremony, a rite, a ritual, a sacrament. And it should have buggerall to do with the legal/social meanings of "marriage" which could easily be called something else. A civil union, or registered union, Betrothal sounds good to me, but whatever. Any two consenting adults could get a license for Betrothal, with all the rights and privileges now given to "marriage." Fill in the forms, attest to it before a judge, that's it. Marriage as a word will no longer be considered a legal definition. Children from an unlicensed union will be considered the children of "unmarried" people, with the same rules applied. Each person in a Betrothal is a spouse, as "wife" and "husband" will be considered social terms, not legal ones. No state can tell any church who it can or cannot marry. The church will not be free to criticize who the state will recognize in a civil union.

It'll never happen. Too reasonable, obvious, simple. Not in this fool country.