I've seen many people to the left of the middle now arguing that gay people shouldn't work towards getting legal, secular, government-issued marriage. "The word "marriage" doesn't really mean anything. Why can't they just have civil unions? They're the same thing, but by not calling them marriage, people will support them."
Well, Wisconsin kinda-sorta proves them wrong, doesn't it?
Let me explain. Wisconsin was one of those retrograde moron states that banned gay marriage with a popular vote in 2006, sponsored by Christian Right extremist groups Alliance Defense Fund and Wisconsin Family Action. But somehow they elected a Democratic governor, Jim Doyle. Gov. Doyle signed a domestic partnership registry law this June allowing for some limited benefits to gay Wisconsin couples. Now the Christian Right is whining about this law, claiming it's banned by the ban on gay marriage.
Gov. Doyle, being sane, has said that of course it isn't, that offering limited rights to gay domestic partners isn't marriage. And it isn't. For example, couples registered under the law cannot legally adopt children. For another, the stupid homophobic law Wisconsin voters passed in 2006 outlaws anything "equivalent" to marriage status for gay people as well. So it outlaws civil unions, which would give gay citizens equal status to marriage, if not the name.
But it doesn't matter to these people who oppose gay people being offered secular state-sponsored marriage licenses. To them, this is a matter of what God wants. God supports all of their prejudices against gay people being treated as, well, whole people, able to love and marry and raise children and visit each other when they're sick and inhert each others' property when they die. So it doesn't matter what you call it.
Call it separate but equal, like civil unions: They oppose it.
Call it secular marriage: Not okay.
Call it Legal Buggery: Nope.
Now, I think that those who argue for gay civil unions aren't necessarily on the side of the Christian bigots who oppose gay people having good lives. I think they're just ignorant of who they're dealing with. They don't care about the word marriage. They may not even be planning to ever marry themselves. So they don't see what the big deal is. Call it civil unions, let the religious weirdos have the word "marriage" to mean religious weirdo stuff, and they're fine with it.
They just don't get it. It matters. It matters to those of us who believe in equal rights to all in our society to government-sponsored marriage. It matters to all of us who fantasize about having a wedding and marrying the person we love...who fantasizes about civil unionizing, again? Not I. And it matters to those who believe their God hates gay people, and doesn't want them to be able to get married, or unionized, or even partnered in any way acceptable to society.
Kind of like our Congress right now, aren't they? "Oh, it doesn't matter if you call it a 'government option' or if you call it 'co-ops.' Just call it co-ops, let the Republican weirdos think they defeated a government option, and everything will be fine."
It matters. Fight for full civil rights. Fight for marriage. Fight for universal single-payer. Don't bother trying to compromise. The other side cannot and will not compromise, and no matter what you come up with, they will oppose it.