ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the three common and interrelated conceptions: that the sacred is an exclusively religious category, that it stands over against or opposes the secular, and that the secular, therefore, by its very nature, cannot produce or host the sacred'. It argues that the notion of the sacred can be attributed irrespective of religious or secular context, though attributions may vary according to the ideology and values to which people subscribe. As such there is no gap between the sacred and the secular in which social identities could emerge or be situated. The sacred will be revisited and re-theorized in relation to the secular, with the term secular sacred being utilized strategically to highlight the break with the commonly expressed view that the sacred is an exclusively religious category. This theoretical discussion will be followed by an analysis of the controversy surrounding same-sex marriage and the deep-seated convictions about gender difference and equality which underpin it.
