It's interesting that in all of recorded human history, there has been not one culture anywhere on earth that married people of the same sex. Now think about how diverse the world's cultures are, from Eskimos, to ancient Mayans, to African tribes in the jungle, to China to ancient Druids, Romans, etc etc. NONE of them believed in gay marriages. And that's even true for societies that were very tolerant of homosexuality. For example, in ancient Greece, not only was homosexuality tolerated, it was actually PROMOTED. Men of ancient Greece considered adolescent boys to be the chief object of desire, even over women. And even in a society that actively promoted homosexuality, they did not even believe marriage should be between men. I just say this to put things in context and realize just how radical a change this is for global civilization. It's not a "non-issue".
There's an underlying agenda that gays don't want to publically admit. They want to say that it's all about giving them the same rights as everyone else. They could have those rights with civil unions and every poll shows that most Americans support by a large margin giving gays civil union rights. But that's not good enough for the gay marriage advocates. The reason they want to call it marriage goes beyond mere semantics. The underlying reason is that they want society to view men marrying men as EQUALLY desirable as men marrying women. As an agnostic, I say that that goes against god and/or nature's design of the human species. Men were by design, made to be with women, not with men, and that's what I think our culture needs to reinforce. I don't have to get into religious beliefs to support that. Science and natural evolution are good enough.
I think we need to give heterosexual couplings as the ideal to children. That doesn't mean we bash people that are gay, but I don't believe we should redefine traditional marriage as a man and a woman because 3% of the population doesn't feel they fit into it. If they want rights they are available as civil unions, but that is not their agenda. They simply don't like the idea that most people find male female pairings to be PREFERENTIAL over same sex pairings and that irks them. They are not denied love or committment. There are straight couples that aren't married and have no plan to marry that still have love and commitment. The right to love and committment has nothing to do with the issue whatsoever. It's about trying to change people's attitudes toward homosexuality by changing the laws. And that's what I and many others have a serious problem with, and why it's become such a flashpoint issue.