breakthenight
Well-Known Member
Erm...gonna pop in here for a second and hopefully not get my head bitten off!
The problem with calling a marriage which is sanctioned by the government and not by a religious body something other than marriage is quite simply NOBODY ACCEPTS IT AS MARRIAGE. Trust me on this one. Myself and my husband for various reasons decided to for the time being forgo any marriage celebrations and get what is called a "registered domestic partnership". It affords us the same rights as married people. To the Nova Scotia government we are married people. If we broke up we would have to file paperwork, and our possessions would be split in the same way as a traditionally married couples. We are listed as spouses in government registries, in our insurance policies. If I died my husband would get everything.
............The government accepts as as spouses, but as far as ANYONE in my family are concerned we are boyfriend/girlfriend. It's unbelievably annoying to have people constantly treating your relationship as lesser because it's called something different. I feel married. I have the same rights as married people. It still sucks and I know eventually we are going to have to get traditionally married just so people will stop ignoring our relationship. If I meet people and tell them I'm married they respect my relationship. If I tell them I have a "Nova Scotia registered domestic partnership" it means nothing to them. I can understand the "idea"of making legal and religious marriages two different things but I can tell you in practice it just DOES NOT work. Nobody dreams of growing up and having a domestic partnership or civil union with the love of their lives.
Also as a quick history lesson, NS domestic partnership was originally the idea of the government who wanted to throw a bone to same sex couples and have a marriage without the name marriage for them. It was implemented just before same sex marriage was legalized but was kept afterwards as a way for couples to marry without the formality of an actual wedding.
The problem with calling a marriage which is sanctioned by the government and not by a religious body something other than marriage is quite simply NOBODY ACCEPTS IT AS MARRIAGE. Trust me on this one. Myself and my husband for various reasons decided to for the time being forgo any marriage celebrations and get what is called a "registered domestic partnership". It affords us the same rights as married people. To the Nova Scotia government we are married people. If we broke up we would have to file paperwork, and our possessions would be split in the same way as a traditionally married couples. We are listed as spouses in government registries, in our insurance policies. If I died my husband would get everything.
............The government accepts as as spouses, but as far as ANYONE in my family are concerned we are boyfriend/girlfriend. It's unbelievably annoying to have people constantly treating your relationship as lesser because it's called something different. I feel married. I have the same rights as married people. It still sucks and I know eventually we are going to have to get traditionally married just so people will stop ignoring our relationship. If I meet people and tell them I'm married they respect my relationship. If I tell them I have a "Nova Scotia registered domestic partnership" it means nothing to them. I can understand the "idea"of making legal and religious marriages two different things but I can tell you in practice it just DOES NOT work. Nobody dreams of growing up and having a domestic partnership or civil union with the love of their lives.
Also as a quick history lesson, NS domestic partnership was originally the idea of the government who wanted to throw a bone to same sex couples and have a marriage without the name marriage for them. It was implemented just before same sex marriage was legalized but was kept afterwards as a way for couples to marry without the formality of an actual wedding.
