Marriage to me is a word with specific meaning. To call something else by the same name is, I believe, a problem in semantics, confusing and illogical. Insisting on calling different things by the same name is to lose the language.

To call a rat a rat is maybe offensive to the rat because of pejorative overtones. Calling a rat a tiger may be more satisfying to the rat and boost its self-esteem, but it's still a rat, and tigers may object to the shared title. A rat by any other name is still a rat.

A union of two same-sex people can be called many things, but to me, a marriage it is not.

Carlin Freeberg

Bellingham