well, marriage is recognized by civil laws as a social/political matter...it's only seen as a spiritual ceremony by Christians. which is fine, just...the way i see, Christians can give marriage any meaning they want but it's not their business to impose their interpretation of it onto anyone else. no matter what, there's going to be controversy over the issue of gay marriage. say a term is created to specify gay marriage- many gay people will be offended by the fact that they're being treated as a separate people. the fuss over gays getting married is the new fuss over interracial couples getting married...in time i think we'll look back at all this controversy over a silly term and feel pretty foolish. but i do see where you're coming from, and i can agree to disagree :o