What the states should do is to stop issuing marriage licenses to everyone. Do away with civil marriages all together. All marriages would be as witnessed by a church and attendees. That’s the way it uses to be anyway.
The state should never have been in the marriage business in the first place. It seems to me that by re-defining the state marriage contract, they are invalidating marriages between existing opposite sex couples.
Okay, stop with this nonsense already. The state's role in merely recognizing marriage is not being "in the marriage business." It has never been a problem until within the past decade or so, and we shouldn't change this system on account of some anarchist sodomites.
Government at some level will frequently be asked to officiate in marriages when these are contested or denied. The government must define what it officiates.