'Gay weddings' become law in UK

BBC NEWS | UK | 'Gay weddings' become law in UK Hundreds of gay couples are preparing to form civil partnerships in the coming weeks as the law changes after decades of campaigning.

Finally! But a discussion on the Today programme, well, today, was interesting in its focus on the word marriage. It turns out that the only difference between the two is that marriage is enacted performatively through saying the words of commitment whereas a ‘civil partnership’ is enacted through the performance of signing the register. It just points to the importance of rituals in any kind of society.

Another very interesting point was made by Stephanie Coontz in a recent column (I’ve lost) who argued that the door to ‘gay marriage’ was open by ‘heterosexual marriage’ which has shifted in function from a purely reproductive and social commitment to a personal and psychological one which all of a sudden made it possible for gay people to see themselves (a great case of conceptual integration or blending) as entering into this sort of relationship and for all of us to begin to see this as a human right.