Reply #98: Laws under the constitutions ( my mistake in using that shorthand description.)

[Gormy Cuss]

Your proposal appeases the obtuse thinkers because they can continue to believe the word marriage has only sacred meaning. It's a secular term as well as a sacred term. The only sticking point is whether the secular meaning can evolve further away from the sacred meanings. No one is going to force any faith to recognize civilly married people as married within a faith, in spite of the pro-Prop. 8 ads that suggested just that.

The opposition to gay marriage here was funded largely by religious groups who believe homosexuality is morally aberrant. Changing the term to "civil unions" for all won't cut it with these same groups nor with the voters who are adherents of these groups. They'd just scare up another excuse to make it illegal.