Does being adamantly opposed to same-sex marriage make someone a bigot?

[Algernon Moncrieff]

167. I absolutely argue that point.

The analogy I'd make is to the word "Christmas." Christmas means very different things to those who are secular versus those who are devoutly Christian. To the secular, the holiday centers around presents and eating, and there is generally gravitation to songs such as "Frosty the Snow Man" and "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" that do not have any spiritual connotation. To the devoutly Christian, the holiday centers on church services and nativity recreations, and music tends to be more traditional spiritual tunes, such as "Go Tell it on the Mountain" and "Joy to the World."

"Marriage" is a similarly loaded word. Those whose lives around their faith cannot or will not separate their spiritual interpretation of marriage from the legal definition of the term. Their faith teaches them that certain relationships are immoral, and therefore they can't condone marriage in his context. We at DU (I'm as guilty as anyone) are generally quick to associate these types of beliefs with fundamentalist Christians, but they actually apply equally to Orthodox Jews, Muslims, and other faiths.

..so I say take the word "marriage" out of the equation for everybody. Everyone should have a legally binding civil union that defines the relationship's property and inheritance rights in the eyes of the law (and the rights of offspring), and any one who wishes to do so can be "married" by a priest, shaman, rabbi, imam, or Elvis impersonator of their choosing.