Legal Marriage, just bin it

So I've been watching all the hullabaloo over the last couple days, the outrage from people on either side and even in the middle. Seems nobody is happy and there is neither result was going to make anyone happy.

So I started thinking is there a third way....

Well I think there is. First lets get some definitions down. I'll be using them later, these aren't the dictionary definitions, just mine to separate the two concepts.

1. Legal Marriage is the protections afforded under the law.
2. Traditional or Religious Marriage is the ceremony of actually getting married and what constitutes the rules around being married.

The religious aspect of marriage is a very personal thing, it's based on our belief systems, our culture and heritage. Marriage is different between a Jew, a Muslim, a Christian, a Buddhist, etc. Is anyone more right than the other no? These are beliefs not laws. No one system is more correct than the other and that's the way it should be. Amy and I, neither of us being religious in the least discussed a Quaker style wedding minus the religious aspect. Our friends and family would be given the opportunity to speak to us.

We would then still need to complete the legal portion of the marriage. The term marriage is a bit of a misnomer here, we're actually signing a contract between each other and a mountain of legislation governing the laws of said contract comes into effect. Not very romantic, and once you start reading it, it sounds more like a business contract than a marriage. So why not call it what it is?

There is of course another valid use case here, and I don't mean same-sex marriages, civil unions, etc.

When I was very small, my grandparents had a nice house in Edinburgh, I remember the red front door vividly to this day. Next door to them lived two little old ladies, and I mean little old ladies in the typical stereotype too, lavender tweed twinsets all the way. They had been companions for each other for decades, no relation to each other past friends. They lived in the same house, shared all the bills and responsibility, were next of kin for each other. Sounds almost like a marriage without the sex. The question becomes should they be allowed into a domestic partnership? My say would be yes, though it was not a romantic relationship but one of friendship and companionship, they should be allowed to seek the same protections under the law.

This is key, the idea of a domestic partnership does not equate to marriage, marriage is a ceremonial act and way of living, the partnership provides the underlying framework of law. Partnerships can take many forms, just like legal marriage now, there may or may not be custody, no children and those sections of the law do not apply, just like they do today.

I think once we remove the concept of marriage from the legal system, a lot of what people currently balk at will dissipate, they will be what they really are...

Contracts between two people.