this was something my mom and a friend were talking about a while ago that i keep thinking about….it really is entirely inappropriate for any government to define “marriage” as anything but a civil union not because of the arguments for same-sex marriage or anything related to it but rather because extending marriage equality to (able-bodied) gay couples just expanded a fundamentally religious institution that has no place in a government that claims (protests, insists, lies) that it cares about freedom of religion? imo?