SIR – Re the letter by Bob Churchill (Worcester News, January 21).
The problem with a same-sex marriage lies in the definition of marriage, made clear in the Oxford dictionary.
I quote: “Marriage is the condition of man and woman legally united for purpose of procreating lawful offspring”. This does not preclude two persons of the same sex being legally united, nor does the law of this land. By the above definition, however, a union between two people of the same sex cannot be termed a marriage.
It is not a “condition of man and woman” nor can the union “procreate”.
So there can be no such thing as a same-sex marriage – it is contradictory, just as there can’t be a three-wheeled bicycle.
I am deeply sorry that two people of the same sex, legally bonded, wish to use the word marriage to describe their condition.
There will have to be some other way of describing this perfectly legal and healthy union, perhaps ‘legal union’.
Neil Humphries
Worcester
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