What is wrong with just have marriage legally define as a religious institution, therefore giving the religions to which marriage belongs to the right to keep it hetero, and just give homosexual couples the same rights?
If the pro-gay side would just leave marriage alone, they could than fight for other important gays rights issues (benfits, ect.), and civil unions are much more popular with the US public.
This would be acceptable... but only if government then gets its noses out of a religious institution and we abolish legal marriage altogether. Either marriage is religious, in which case government should not be involved at all (no legal recognition/rights associated with it), or marriage is not religious, in which case it can be acknowledged by the government but must then be nondiscriminatory.
No legal marriage doesn't mean abolishing legal civil unions, of course. Civil unions for all is fine with me, even if it's stupid wordplay to prefer that over marriage for all.
Yes, I agree with should abolish legal marriage. Marriage can be a church ceremony for those who want it, but it will not be recognized by the state. Therefore the 'sanctity' of marriage is protected, and everyone has equal rights.
