Marriage

===Same-sex and third-gender marriages===
{{Main|Same-sex marriage|History of same-sex unions}}
[[File:Terryandmarkwedding.jpg|thumb|A same-sex couple exchanging wedding vows in a [[Unitarian Universalism|Unitarian Universalist]] Fellowship]]
Several kinds of same-sex marriages have been documented in Indigenous and lineage-based cultures. In the Americas, [[We'wha]] ([[Zuni people|Zuni]]), was a ''[[lhamana]]'' (male individuals who, at least some of the time, dress and live in the roles usually filled by women in that culture); a respected artist, We'wha served as an emissary of the Zuni to Washington, where he met President [[Grover Cleveland]].<ref name="Stevenson37">Matilda Coxe Stevenson, The Zuni Indians: Their Mythology, Esoteric Fraternities, and Ceremonies, (BiblioBazaar, 2010) p.&nbsp;37 Quote: "the most intelligent person in the pueblo. Strong character made his word law among both men and women with whom he associated. Though his wrath was dreaded by men as well as women, he was loved by all children, to whom he was ever kind."</ref> We'wha had at least one husband who was generally recognized as such.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Eskridge|first=William N.|title=A History of Same-Sex Marriage|journal=Virginia Law Review|year=1993|volume=79|pages=1453–58|doi=10.2307/1073379|issue=7|jstor=1073379|url=http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/fss_papers/1504}}</ref>

While it is a relatively new practice to grant same-sex couples the same form of legal marital recognition as commonly granted to mixed-sex couples, there is some history of recorded same-sex unions around the world.<ref name="same_sex_marriage_a09">{{Cite book|last1=Alderson|first1=Kevin|last2=Lahey|first2=Kathleen A.|title=Same-Sex Marriage: The Personal and the Political|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=hR0_CoNj6GAC&pg=RA1-PA16|year = 2004|publisher = Insomniac Press |isbn=978-1-894663-63-2|page=16}}</ref> [[Homosexuality in ancient Greece|Ancient Greek same-sex relationships]] were like modern companionate marriages, unlike their different-sex marriages in which the spouses had few emotional ties, and the husband had freedom to engage in outside sexual liaisons. The [[Codex Theodosianus]] (''C. Th.'' 9.7.3) issued in 438 [[Common Era|CE]] imposed severe penalties or death on same-sex relationships,<ref>''ubi scelus est id, quod non proficit scire, ubi venus mutatur in alteram formam, ubi amor quaeritur nec videtur, iubemus insurgere leges, armari iura gladio ultore, ut exquisitis poenis subdantur infames, qui sunt vel qui futuri sunt rei.''[http://ancientrome.ru/ius/library/codex/theod/liber09.htm#7 Ancientrome.ru] "where that crime is found, which is unfit even to know, we command the law to arise armed with an avenging sword that the infamous men who are, or shall in future be guilty of it, may undergo the most severe punishments." translation by Lord [[William Blackstone]], ''[[Commentaries on the Laws of England]]'' Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1769, Vol. IV, pp. 215–16.</ref> but the exact intent of the law and its relation to social practice is unclear, as only a few examples of same-sex relationships in that culture exist.<ref>{{cite journal|last = Kuefler |first=Mathew|year=2007|title=The Marriage Revolution in Late Antiquity: The Theodosian Code and Later Roman Marriage Law|journal = [[Journal of Family History]]|volume=32|pages=343–70|doi=10.1177/0363199007304424|issue=4|s2cid=143807895}}</ref> Same-sex unions were celebrated in some regions of China, such as [[Fujian]].<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Hinsch|first1=Bret|title=Passions of the Cut Sleeve: The Male Homosexual Tradition in China|year=1990|publisher=[[Reed Elsevier|Reed Business Information, Inc.]]|isbn=978-0-520-07869-7}}</ref> Possibly the earliest documented same-sex wedding in [[Latin Church|Latin Christendom]] occurred in [[Rome|Rome, Italy]], at the [[San Giovanni a Porta Latina]] basilica in 1581.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bway.net/~halsall/lgbh/lgbh-montaigne.txt|date=1998-12-05|access-date=2017-12-05 |title=Gay Marriage in Montaigne |website=bway.net |url-status=bot: unknown|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19981205014731/http://www.bway.net/~halsall/lgbh/lgbh-montaigne.txt|archive-date=5 December 1998}}</ref>