POV: date=October 2008
Debates over terminology
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POV: date=October 2008
Debates over terminology
Some proponents of same-sex marriage use the term "equal marriage" to stress that they seek equality as opposed to special rights. Opponents argue that equating same-sex and opposite-sex marriage changes the meaning of marriage and its traditions. Furthermore they frequently use the term "homosexual marriage," and some surveys have suggested that the word "homosexual" is more stigmatizing than the word "gay."
Some have suggested reserving the word "marriage" for religious contexts, and in civil and legal contexts using a uniform concept of civil unions. Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz, for instance, writes that such an arrangement would "strengthen the wall of separation between church and state by placing a sacred institution entirely in the hands of the church while placing a secular institution under state control." Some proponents and opponents of same-sex marriage on both sides find such a suggestion impractical. "Why do we suddenly have to throw out the entire system, invent some whole new thing, just because gay people want to get married?," asks Evan Wolfson of Freedom to Marry and a contributor to the landmark cases in Vermont and Massachusetts that led to the legalization of same-sex civil unions and marriages, respectively. "I don't actually see Alan Dershowitz doing anything about this, other than writing an article, because he probably rightly understands it would be an immense project to go around the country and convince 200 million plus people to trade in their marriage for something new and explain why we are doing this when we actually have a legal system that already clearly distinguishes between civil and religious marriage." Conservative critics in the US like National Review's Jennifer Morse contend that the conflation of marriage with contractual agreements is itself a threat to marriage that "has undermined more heterosexual marriages than anything, with the possible exception of adultery," but has not cited specific evidence to support the claim.
Use of scare quotes in print and online media
Some publications that oppose same-sex marriage adopt an editorial style policy of placing the word marriage in scare quotes ("marriage") when it is used in reference to same-sex couples. In the United States, the mainstream press has largely abandoned this practice. The last major U.S. print daily to employ this editorial style was The Washington Times, which abandoned the policy in February 2008 at the behest of newly appointed editor John Solomon.
Some online publications such as WorldNetDaily and Baptist Press still follow the practice. Cliff Kincaid, editor of the conservative American media-watchdog group Accuracy in Media and president of an anti-U.N. group called America's Survival, agrees with this method, arguing that "marriage" is a legal status denied same-sex couples by most state governments. Same-sex marriage supporters argue that the use of scare quotes is an editorialization that implies inferiority, and point out that the quotes are even used when referring to same-sex marriages in states where such unions are legal.
