In France, you have to "get married" twice--once at the city hall, and once in church if you choose to. The first is the civil partnership; the second is the religious component, if that matters to you. Here, you can just do the religious ceremony and that's enough.

This is an instance where the state is interfering with the church, not the other way around for once. The state needs to get out of the marriage business. "Marriage" is a religious concept and should be left to religion. If people want a state-recognized partnership--with whomever and however many whomevers as long as they're consenting adult humans (animals cannot consent so don't start with me, y'all)--that should be called something other than marriage. And benefits, if any, should go to the state-recognized partnerships.

Lynn Siprelle, Editor