... but I think it's a bit oversimplistic to ignore the basis of all of our laws. I think it's impossible to separate all laws from such amorphous concepts as "common good", morality and even general religious conviction. So my point was is there any benefit to society if gays are allowed to redefine marriage?
Yes, many couples marry for reasons other than children. But back in my feminist days I took more than one course and read more than one piece on the evolution of marriage in societies. Regardless of religion, it has always been predominantly one man one woman, and where it has been one man several women, the concept is similar. Biologically, the female is more necessary in a nurturing role particularly at young ages. A man can easily father children without knowing he is the father, a female knows w/o doubt that she is the mother! So that the parents know who their offspring belong to, marriage has basically been the family structure in societies. The feminist take on all this was to support the men oppressing women angle, but it still makes sense to me on the common good for society angle.
I maintain that this is really a non-issue except to legitimize and create another class with special "rights" based on behavior. If two gay men or women want to spend the rest of their lives together, they can even "marry" in many places. The state just doesn't recognize them. If the lack of state recognition is what deprives them of "rights", then I still think the solution is not to redefine a non-government societal institution, but rather change government policy to make it marriage neutral -- as in to neither give preference to nor punish the married, and allow individual "ownership" of all of one's worth so WE the people can decide who gets what when we die.
You and I know it's almost hopeless to really get government out of the bedroom. Demanding government sanction seems an odd way for gays to achieve this goal, so I believe it is more motivated by trying to legitimize their deviant lifestyle (and it is deviant as in deviates from the norm). Since the percentages effected are actually rather small, this is one of those cases where I wonder if it wouldn't just be better to say "fine, get married" and take the issue off the table so the soapboxes can be put away.
Evie 