Andrew Sullivan explains Why Marriage Matters:
... my parents and friends never asked the question they would have asked automatically if I were straight: So, when are you going to get married? When will we be able to celebrate it and affirm it and support it? In fact, no one — no one — has yet asked me that question.
When people talk about gay marriage, they miss the point. This isn't about gay marriage. It's about marriage. It's about family. It's about love. It isn't about religion. It's about civil marriage licenses. Churches can and should have the right to say no to marriage for gays in their congregations, just as Catholics say no to divorce, but divorce is still a civil option.
As I keep saying, I don't get to vote (I'm not a US citizen), but if I did, I would vote No on Proposition 8. I'm with the opponents in the belief that same-sex marriage is an issue of equality guaranteed in the constitution.
One of the things that really bothers me in the mudslinging is everybody's talk of school children and what they are taught. Supporters of Proposition 8 warn that "kids will be taught gay marriage in school". I find their choice of words strange and revealing. What does that mean, the kids will be "taught gay marriage"? They deliberately make it sound like brain-washing and indoctrination, and as if the same-sex version would be the only thing they would learn about marriage.
Opponents of Proposition 8 stress that schools are not required to teach on marriage. But just like the question of whether Barack Obama is a Muslim, it's the answer to the wrong question. If same-sex marriage is legal, why shouldn't your kids know? No good reason, really, except for denial of reality.