re: #316 realwest

I’m not clear on what you’re saying. Sorry, must be me and the lateness of the hour (Eastern time here) but if a gay couple enter into a “civil contract” and that civil contract is recognized by some Church, would you then consider them married?
For if it’s the religious feature of marriage that you are concerned with, think of all the people who get the license (with whatever that entails, blood tests, whatever) and go to City Hall and the City Clerk processes that “civil contract” (assuming it does meet all the requirements for a license to get married) they don’t even have to have a Church acknowledge it or bless it; they are married under that state’s law, and -pursuant to the law - valid contracts entered into by A and B in State X must be honored as valid contracts between A and B in State W.
The only “out” is if that State A doesn’t recognize contracts between Gays as valid contract.
Legally, Churches do not have the final say; you can get married, I suppose, by a minister, priest or rabbi who pays no attention to the State’s law, but that doesn’t make you married - only the imprimatur of the State makes the marriage valid.

no…hold on…

if a couple enters into a legally binding agreement, it can be a ‘marriage’ by law of the state.

no church has to approve unless they want to, and deal with the fall out from it.

the short of this is that in every state, any ‘gay’ couple can be married by entering into the legal portions therof that binds their estates, et cetera and then can go find a church to ‘marriage’ them…