Let’s Finally Say No To “Gay Marriage”

Gay Or Straight, “Marriage” Is “Marriage” — Time To Call It That

Last night, Perez Hilton on Lawrence O’Donnell’s MSNBC show “The Last Word” used the term “gay marriage.” It was in a segment highlighting, as I wrote here and here yesterday, former-president George W. Bush’s daughter Barbara coming out for marriage equality, stating, “I’m Barbara Bush and I’m a New Yorker for marriage equality.”

Here’s the video of Perez and Lawrence:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640

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So over at Change.org I started a petition, which I hope you’ll sign: Tell Perez Hilton To Stop Calling It “Gay Marriage” And Start Calling It “Marriage.”

In it, I write,

“Words matter. They shape how people think, especially about matters with which they are unfamiliar. And just as it’s not “gay lunch” or “gay baseball,” calling it “gay marriage” means it is different from “straight marriage.” It’s not.”

I do feel compelled to state here that there are posts in which I do use the term, “gay marriage,” and I want to tell you why: Google.

In posts discussing marriage, and marriage equality, I often have writen “gay marriage” because Google — and readers like you — search for “gay marriage.” It would be all the more difficult to get our message out and reach the right people if somewhere we didn’t write “gay marriage” somewhere in a post so Google and other search engines could “zero-in” on that content.

But it’s important to note there’s a difference between a TV conversation obviously about marriage equality, and a blog post.

That said, I’ve decided to do my best to not use the term “gay marriage” going forward. I’ll stick it in the “tags” section of a post if need be.

You’ll see the terms “marriage” and “marriage equality” here. I’ll do my best to minimize “same-sex marriage” and keep “gay marriage” out of the text of posts.

So, what do you think? is it time to say no to “gay marriage,” and say yes to “marriage?”