You can hardly broach the topic of weddings these days without raising the issue of gay marriage.

Only five of the 50 states in the US will issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Those states are Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont and New Hampshire. The District of Columbia also issues licenses to same-sex couples. Rhode Island, New York and Maryland will recognize same-sex marriages from other states.

Still, many issues relating to marriage exist on the federal level. Tax and immigration laws have a huge impact on gay married couples. Even though they may be legally married on the state level, gay married couples have no marriage rights on the federal level.

Many have compared this struggle for equality as being akin to the civil rights movement of the 1960’s. In my opinion, this comparison is flawed. There are no religious arguments against race-based civil rights. In contrast, homosexual behavior is condemned in many faiths and as a result, discrimination against gay unions will be significantly more difficult to eradicate. The civil rights movement had ‘God’ on its side and the gay rights movement does not.

All that said, I thought it would be interesting to see how gay weddings, apart from the obvious, differ from heterosexual weddings.

Unexpectedly, I found that there is a preponderance of similarities between gay wedding ceremonies and conventional heterosexual marriages. For that reason, I will concentrate on the differences.

The majority of same sex marriages are civil ceremonies. I suspect this is because of the taboos against homosexuality that many religious doctrines profess.

“Bride and Groom” or “Husband and Wife” are rarely used in the wedding ceremony. The reference used is spouse or partner.

Similarly, many gay couples prefer to use the words partnership or union, rather than ‘marriage’ to describe the ceremony.

In the majority of gay marriages, you will see both men in tuxes or both women in gowns.

So, there you have it! The differences are few the similarities, many. What’s all the fuss about then? Prejudice and religious dogma; twin foes of the gay marriage movement.

Virtually every major religion is either opposed to homosexual unions or homosexual acts or both! The four dominate world religions, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism and Islam, are opposed to homosexual marriage. Statistically, it is held that 10% of the world’s population is homosexual and that is regardless of race, color or creed. A world population of 7 billion translates to 700 million homosexuals of whom 30 million are US citizens. Given the Judeo-Christian culture of the United States, not to mention its Puritan origins, it is highly unlikely that any progress will be made on the gay marriage front for decades, especially on a federal level.

There are many cogent arguments on both sides of this issue. I have an opinion on both. It would serve us well as a society to examine the issue quite apart from any religious perspective. We are, after all, living in a country founded on the principal of separation of church and state.

Author Bio: Ronald Fisackerly does a lot of article writing for Skylighter. Skylighter sells how to make a smoke bomb and fireworks as well as a variety of other items.

Category: Marriage
Keywords: weddings, gay community, gay marriage, same sex marriage