There is no unique relationship between a ‘man’ and a ‘women’ for marriage to describe
Except at the moment there is;
My understanding is that one of the main hurdles in legalising same sex marriages is that the current legal ‘contract’ of marriage is sealed by consummation and under the current definition a same sex couple cannot perform the acts necessary for consummation.
So when the laws are changed to accommodate same sex marriages then the act of consummation will no longer be part of the contract. Some opponents to same sex marriages believe that this devalues the marriage of heterosexual couples and that by removing a historically significant aspect of the marriage contract the new ‘thing’ is no longer a marriage but something different, marriage MK2?
To some people I know the whole consummation thing was a big deal, they were married as virgins and the act of consummation was sealing the deal, to be fair they are deeply religious people and I would imagine them to be in an ever decreasing minority. To me it didn’t even cross my mind because neither of us are religious and we weren’t in the no sex before marriage camp.