In her speech supporting the Marriage (same sex couples) Bill at Committee Stage, Baroness Noakes questions why same-sex marraiges should be seen and called something different. She points out that there are many different kinds of marriage - marriages between divorced people; marriages with and without children; death-bed marriages - and yet they are not given new or different names. Her full speech can be read here:
My Lords, normally I agree with everything my noble friend Lord Higgins says. I am in profound disagreement with him today. He has emphasised that he believes that marriages between same-sex couples and heterosexual couples are different. There are all kinds of marriages that are different: marriages between divorced people; marriages with and without children; death-bed marriages. However, we do not find different terms for those. Noble Lords need to ask themselves serious questions about why they wish to continue to emphasise sexual orientation in the names that they give certain statuses. By perpetuating giving a different name to marriage in the context of gay and lesbian people, we are wishing to continue to regard them as different from us. Inclusion is what this Bill is about, and what we should be about in society generally, because that is what will make us a stronger society.