Recently in the UK parliamentarians have been arguing over adopting gay marriage plans into law http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22605011.
during the debates some fairly incendiary phraseology was used at times which won't be getting repeated here.
The thrust of the anti gay marriage argument however seems to have been that it would render the institution of marriage meaningless. I couldn't disagree more. In an essentially conservatively liberal society like ours the idea of marriage as a meaningful institution has been dwindling. More people than ever live as couples and have children without recourse to marriage. this is fine. it is good that people aren't put under religious or social pressure to conform to the married couple stereotype.
The point is however that for gay people there is an urgent desire for equality on this matter. Many of them desperately want to be able to marry. To publicly bond and declare their love. this isn't for tax breaks or acceptance or religious reasons. It's for love. They are actively connecting marriage and love an equation that hasn't always been a t the forefront in recent years.
So perhaps gay marriage will actually reinvigorate the idea of the marriage union as a public declaration of love and that can only be a good thing. Speaking as a happily married heterosexual man I for one would recommend marriage (to the right person whoever they are - regardless of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity etc) as a positive thing.
We spend too much time telling people what they can't do. Let's just live our lives and let them live theirs.
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