Civil unions already exist and are treated by the government as legally equal with marriage.
The question, therefore, isn't what will happen. The question is what has already happened to marriage - and what does marriage mean to you? To get more precise, do you believe God is an indispensable part of the creation of a marriage bond? Because if you do, then there is no place for government in the legitimization of that bond. You MUST start there, because everything else is derived from that.
So if you then want to take that union, and its fruits of children, into the government arena, you cannot, in doing so, change the definition of that union. Which means some other contractual mechanism is needed that has no effect whatsoever on the definition of marriage. Ergo, civil unions. Otherwise, you get what we see now - the government claiming the authority to determine the definition of marriage, and then, inevitably, the legitimacy of your marriage according to government specifications.
It's crucial Christians especially get this, because the definition of Christian marriage IS being targeted. And this is the way to fight back, by denying any government involvement in that definition AT ALL.
You might not be understanding what I’m asking.
In this fictional future community, for example, what relationships could you see existing?
“...the legitimacy of your marriage according to government specifications.”
That’s a huge reason so many have accepted ‘gay marriage,’ in my opinion. That’s why the faith groups that have accepted ‘gay marriage’ only marry their gay members if the state they are in happens to agree with them about it. To them, the civil authorities determine what a marriage is. That might be more insane than actually accepting ‘gay marriage’ in the first place.
Freegards
Excellent point — the government seems hell bent to steal the definition of marriage away. It won’t stop at adding gay marriage, it will steal away church marriage. And so the authority that our dear rock ribbed conservatives thought they had will slip away even worse than backing the government recognition down to “household.”
A giant caveat: evangelism/revival “MIGHT” occasion enough spiritual sanity back into We The People that as a salutory effect this gay marriage thing does get bounced back to the hell from which it came. But that cannot be seen as the primary goal, or God will deny it. God is bidding us to give ourselves first, not to give our neighbors.