"Faith is taking the first step, even when you don't see the whole staircase."
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Civil rights - Legally, a 'civil right' is a right or privilege that all citizens within a society are supposed to enjoy, as distinct from a natural right, held to be common to all humans. Examples of 'civil rights' are freedom of speech and religion, the right to vote and freedom from involuntary servitude. The term is American, first recorded in Boston in 1721: "That they Indeavor to maintain all our Civel Rights and Properties against any Incrochments upon them."
Source: The Word Origin Calendar January 18th, 2010.
My question in light of civil/natural rights distinction is this: Is marriage a civil or a natural right?