Oxford English Dictionary Changes Definition of Marriage to Include Same-Sex Couples

The world’s leading authority in defining words, the Oxford English Dictionary, announced it will change the definition of marriage to include same-sex couples. This decision, reports Gail Shister from The Philly Post, comes on the heels of France’s leading word-definer Larousse, which defines marriage as a “solemn act between two same-sex or different-sex persons, who decide to establish a union,” and dictionary.canadaspace.com, which simply states that marriage is “the state of being a married couple voluntarily joined for life (or until divorce.). (That’s so Canada.) Shister has more: 

OxfordDictionaries.com currently defines marriage as “the formal union of a man and a woman, typically as recognized by law, by which they become husband and wife.’

Its second reference states that marriage can also be “(in some jurisdictions) a union between partners of the same sex.”

Wait a minute … it only gets included in the second reference?!

Gay-rights advocates argued that both definitions should share top billing, given that England last month legalized same-sex marriage. Queen Elizabeth II Herself gave the royal nod, according to the Associated Press.

Almost as if by command from Buckingham Palace, an OED spokesman confirmed a week later that ‘marriage’ would be examined closely for revision in future editions. Good man.

OK, now the OED has changed the definition of marriage. Isn’t it time Pennsylvania step up to the plate? Read the rest of Shister’s piece here.

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