"Pairage" is a combination of the words pair and marriage. It has been used by some who feel that the word marriage makes it harder to achieve gay rights.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Word of the Gay: "Pairage"
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4 comments:
Marriage or Nothing..
No, Marriage or Marriage...nothing less will do.
Mark
Can you post this (below) it's on my blog too
thanks!
The Provost’s Office at the University of Pennsylvania & the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Center at the University of Pennsylvania are sponsoring
"Rethinking Sex & Gender"
a conference taking place March 4 -6 2009
Interesting...
well, if it helps! Why not!
And a partridge in a pairage tree! ;)
Very interesting, indeed. "Pairage" seems to be a word whose time has come -- or is perhaps just now arriving. Because using that word as a term to describe gay legal unions is an idea that is apparently occurring to different people independently.
There are plenty of straight people who support gay civil unions with full equal rights; but who won't go so far as "gay marriage" because it seems to be an attempt to fundamentally change the meaning of the word "marriage." So why not "pairage"?
If you're not satisfied with full equal rights under the word "pairage" (or any other word, pick your favorite) -- then you can't honestly claim that your complaint is "only about equal rights." If you feel that *only* the word marriage will do, then you are proving that your opponents -- who claim that the gay agenda is out to change the traditional meaning of the word and the institution of marriage -- are indeed correct.
It's possible to find a solution that meets both of the dearly held goals of both ends of this argument: grant equal rights to gay couples, while also preserving the traditional meaning of marriage as the union of a man and a woman. That solution is something like a civil union with full legal rights. The only objection I have ever heard to that from gay friends is that the term "civil union" is "too cold and impersonal." And I will agree with that, yes. That's why it's time for "pairage" instead.
If "marriage" indicates the union of two people of the opposite sex, then "pairage" is the perfect word to indicate the union of two people of the same sex. Because according to the dictionary, that's just what the word "pair" means: two of a kind.
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