In some countries in Europe the legal aspects of “marriage” are a strictly civil affair. You go to the town hall and pay your fee, satisfy whatever legal requirements (blood tests, or residency, or waiting period…) There is no ceremony. It’s like an escrow closing – some signing of docs, and it’s over. The church handles the church/religious aspects and is completely unrelated to the civil/legal part.

I’m fine with that system.

Civil Unions are NOT equal to Marriage under U.S. Federal law. That’s a problem. Just look at your tax filings. I read that there’s 10’s of thousands of federal laws that refer to marital status.

There are quite a few countries that have legal same sex marriage. They have not been struck by lightning, burned up in fire and brimstone. As far as I know, the opposite sex marriages are still valid.

I’m straight. I’m married. My marriage is not in threat if a lesbian or gay couple gets married any more than it’s threatened if some immature couple like Bristol Palin and Levi Johnson actually make it to the alter. People around me make good marital choices and bad ones… it doesn’t affect MY marriage. My kids aren’t threatened. My kids already have classmates with 2 moms or 2 dads… this doesn’t change that. They also have friends who are kids of divorce, friends who’s parents never married. They see friends of ours who chose to never have children yet are still married. The world is not a homogeneous… families can have lots of children, no children, same sex parents, opposite sex parents, single parents… Some will be bonded by love, some by dysfunction… I’m not God, so I’m not going to judge other families.

Prop 8 is/was about denying rights to a group of citizens. I’m old enough to remember Loving v. Virginia. (I was a kid, but I remember it.) This is very similar, in my opinion.