The words husband and wife have been removed from marriage laws in California to accommodate same-sex marriage.
The term spouse will now be used under a bill signed into law this week by Gov. Jerry Brown.
Mark Leno, the politician who wrote the bill, suggested that the new legislation was necessary to remove “outdated and biased language from state codes.”
The new law, SB1306, comes after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of permitting same-sex marriages in California last year.
The decision came shortly after a ruling by the Supreme Court which held that the state’s prohibition on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional and violated “equal protection principles applicable to the federal government.”
In 2008, 52 percent of California’s citizens voted to protect the definition of marriage as between one man and one woman.
The SB1306 law, which will come into force in January 2015, defines marriage in California as “a personal relation arising out of a civil contract between two persons.”
The National Organization for Marriage, a U.S.-based pro-traditional marriage group, said the new law was “further proof that redefining marriage is not simply about ‘equality,’ ” but rather, “it is about fundamentally altering the meaning of the institution itself.”
Earlier this year, MPs approved proposals to remove the terms husband, wife and widow from legislation dating back hundreds of years following the passage of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 in the U.K.
MPs voted in favor of proposals to prevent a man who marries a King of Britain from being referred to as queen, and to stop the same-sex partner of a future prince of Wales from be entitled princess of Wales.
Amendments were even approved to the Metropolitan Public Carriage Act 1869, which allows cab licenses of deceased husbands to be transferred to their widows by way of a London cab order.
Andrea Williams of Christian Concern said at the time: “This is the land of make-believe and we are operating in the realms of the absurd.
“Proposed amendments in areas ranging from cab licenses to royal titles show what a mess the Government has created. We are twisting language to fit a collective deception that undermines the truth about what marriage is.”
