Terminology: “Gay Marriage”

Just a quick post that’s semi-related to my post yesterday. So in that post I used the term “gay marriage” a few times, in the title and in the post itself.

Something about that term made me uncomfortable all of yesterday and this morning I hit on why. I remember a conversation I had with someone about the term “white trash” and how they had massive problems with it, not because they found it insulting but because the need to add the descriptor “white” to it implies that People of Color are trash anyway.
It’s the same with the term “gay marriage”. It works on the assumption that marriage is a heterosexual union. If it wasn’t working on that assumption there would be no need to qualify it with the word “gay”. So I’ve gone back and changed the post to read “Marriage Equality” instead because I just think that’s a better phrasing altogether.

I may not agree with marriage and want it abolished wholesale but I’m still an Creative Writing graduate, terminology is important to me.