Sometimes I wonder why otherwise intelligent people have problems with simple reading comprehension.
I said, I do not care how the thing is called as long as same sex unions have the same LEGAL rights as heterosexual unions, and I do not give two shits about the moral or semantic aspect of it. I did NOT argue for a legal status that carries fewer rights than that involving heterosexual couples.
To make it even clearer: When I get, say, a junior driver license, this is "something inferior" to the regular driver license, because it has certain restrictions (e.g. I cannot drive past 11PM, or carry minors, I can lose it on my parent's request, etc.) that the ordinary driver license does not. If, otoh, some state decides to give me something called a "motor vehicle operator privilege" (which is what the driver license in fact is) that gives me comparable rights as something called a "driver license" in another state - neither of these two licenses are inferior to one another.
Now, explain it to me how the legally sanctioned union of same sex people that has the same legal rights as a heterosexual union is inferior to the heterosexual union if it is not called "marriage" by listing specific legal rights that one has and the other one does not.
If that is not semantic quibbling, I do not know what is.
Wojtek