[extropy-chat] Just curious, it's not natural!

[ben]

Anna said:

 > I feel using the word "marriage" as a symbol of the
 > union between 2 men or 2 women violates my right as a
 > heterosexual female.


This is interesting.

Are you sure you mean what you say here? You actually feel that 
somebody's use of a word in a way that you disagree with, is a violation 
of your rights?

If this is true, i don't understand it. What rights are you talking about?

I mean, i feel that the American use of the word 'tire' to mean 'tyre' 
is a number of things - stupid, confusing, unnecessary, even ignorant 
(I'm no fan of Webster, you can guess), but one thing it isn't, is a 
violation of any of my rights.

Now, if there was a proposal to change the law and make me use the word 
'tire' to mean the thing that goes round the outside of a wheel, as well 
as (or even instead of) what happens when i use up all my energy, that 
would be different. I don't know if i could say that 'my rights were 
being violated', but i would certainly object to any attempt to 
criminalise my use of 'proper english'. What i can't object to, though 
(although i can certainly dislike it), is the American use of the word. 
They can mangle their language any way they like, it doesn't violate any 
of my rights.

I think the point of the gay marriage thing is that 'marriage' has a 
legal status, and gay people want to be able to have a legally 
sanctioned relationship with exactly the same status as a marriage. So 
why confuse things by having a different name for it?

What about transgender people? Does a couple consisting of an XY male 
who is anatomically female (with an official sex of female) and another 
XY male who is anatomically male, need a different term for their marriage?

What about some future couple who are both hermaphrodites, or both 
neuters, who want to live together as a married couple with all the same 
legal rights? Would you propose creating yet more new terms for them?
What about a couple where one is human and the other a machine? A neuter 
and a male? Two people who can change their sex at will?

etc., etc.

(And that's without even thinking about relationships involving more 
than 2 people!)

ben zaiboc