I still want a different word for 'gay marriage'

Why bother getting married at all? What is the purpose of a marriage for you, beyond a commitment to your partner that you could make without any ministers, justices of the peace, or anybody else?I agree with ohnhai. Religious marriage should be separated from civil marriage. Seems to me you're talking about religious marriage--some specific ideal to the "meaning" and "form" of marriage. What does that have to do with the practical side? You can have that meaning and form without the practical issues (i.e. different accounting methods, financial obligations to each other, different legal consideration).It puzzles me as much as it puzzles you, I think.

In a society where failed marriages outnumber the successful ones, I'm not feelin' a lot of the "massive amount of societal pressure" that you're talking about.And take a culture where there IS this massive amount of societal pressure to conform and live up to promises such as marriage: Japan. Anecdotally, marriages often wind up empty, with partners being more like roomates than anything else. Who is benefitting from the pressure to conform then?People who don't understand what commitment is are not going to learn it by feeling pressured into staying with someone. On the contrary, I think that leads to less commitment. I would rather see no external pressure to commit, watch people fail and learn from themselves, and then learn to be committed.Live & Learn.

http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/p70-80.pdfTable 2 has some interesting stats (can't really post here, due to formatting issues)Not really feeling your 70%; true figure looks to be (eyeballing it) about 60%. But regardless, your point stands--the stat can be used to mislead easily.Thanks for bringing it up.