Reference sources recognize gay marriage, too!

The way a dictionary defines a particular term might not seem like a big deal, until you learn that:

A 2006 friend-of-the-court brief filed on behalf of anti-gay-marriage organizations in a Maryland marriage case cited no fewer than seven dictionaries to make its point. And when the Iowa Supreme Court legalized gay marriage last week, it ignored the state's plea to abide by a dictionary definition that limited marriage to 'the legal union of a man and a woman.' (slate.com)

In other words: there's a lot at stake in the way key dictionaries (like The American Heritage Dictionary, Black's Law Dictionary, and Webster's) define marriage. So what happens when legal & cultural definitions of marriage change? Dictionaries change, too! In an article published yesterday on Slate.com, Daniel Redman discusses the ways in which these research resources are recognizing gay marriage and same-sex unions You can read the full article here. You can read the revised definition of marriage in Webster's (on campus or by proxy, via CREDO Reference) here.