For me the bottom line is that our system confers huge benefits to married people -- including tax benefits, inheritance rights and rights to social security survivor benefits. Do you believe that gay couples should not be able to get all of the same benefits as heterosexual couples? If not, then why? My sense is that ultimately all the arguments against gay marriage have a religious/cultural basis. That's not new. The arguments in favor of slavery and against female voting were very similar. The Bible talks about putting men to death for homosexuality, and it also has passages supporting slavery and women not having equal rights. Sadly, my experience has been that most people never sit down and actually read the Bible. My experience has been that there is a lot of value there, but also a lot that makes little sense, including the concept of putting people to death because they are homosexuals. Unless we want to trample on people's first amendment rights to be free from other people's religions, it seems to me that government policies should be based on religiously neutral principles.