Find compromise on gay marriage
There's only one viable compromise to this highly controversial and emotional debate over homosexual marriage: abolish the term “marriage” from the government and replace it with “civil union” for both heterosexual and homosexual couples.
Marriage is a religious term. Christians often use the institution to describe critical concepts like the relationship between the congregation and Jesus Christ, the creation and the apocalypse. It is understandable, if disagreeable, that they get visibly upset by the fact that a homosexual couple, often seen with great hostility, wants to be involved in what they consider to be a central religious institution.
Then, if the term “marriage” is considered a religious term, what is it doing in our government's legal codes? If the purpose of marriage in a purely governing point of view is to encourage population stability in terms of relationships and numbers, why incite social instability by assigning that institution a religious terminology?
Abolishing “marriage” and instating “civil union” resolves the issue of religious conflicts with homosexual Americans, removes a religious term from our government's legal system and prevents any questionable discrimination against homosexual couples reminiscent of the aftermath of Plessy v. Ferguson. Now that's what I call three birds with one stone.
Byunghun Hyun
Undergraduate