If you want to leave your estate to your queer friend or buy property together that is your business, but to cheapen God’s institution of marriage is another.
We don't need to demand that society redefine any institution to recognize our special relationship.
That is just it, either a civil union or a marriage is at its foundation, a contract between two people for a long-term commitment. Now, most contracts are written, for the most part including those of civil unions, and have enforceable clauses, open to review by disinterested parties that make a decision as to the intent of those clauses. Marriages differ from most contracts, in that most of the terms are UNWRITTEN, and are only interpreted by an edict from a court specializing in this branch of civil law. Using this large body of case law, the individual circumstances of each marriage may be examined when there is some contention as to the degree of commitment each of the parties has to maintaining that contract, and the adjudication is administered accordingly.
If you want messy, the various interpretations of just what “marriage” means are fertile ground.
Do these same-sex couples really want to complicate their lives that much?
I agree. I am against anyone who even tolerates gay marriage.