Because marriage does more than tie two people together through law. Marriage ties two people together and, in turn, ties us to our community.

There are some marriage equality supporters who treat this as just extending a civil right to an excluded group. As you point out, though, it’s much more. This means that people are somewhat justified in their fears their community may change; it will. We need to keep this in mind, as we help opponents understand what we’re after — some things change, but some will stay the same.

I will if heterosexuals will. Let the liars, and the cheaters and the swingers and the polyamorists and the open marriage betterosexuals embrace this “conservative” side of marriage. Or, explain why none of that is relevant to the institution of heterosexual marriage. Hets can marry even if they can’t have babies, cheat, swing, or never have sex at all or even live together.

The quest is for equality before the law, not special rights for hets OR gays.

This issue does not solely belong to gay people. However, for a significant percentage of gay men who have been in relationships longer than a few years, there is some form of non-monogamy going on. Most of the non-monogamous gay couples I knew pre-marriage continued to be non-monogamous afterward…and, although it’s not mentioned during “the vows,” these couples are not particularly shy or quiet about being non-monogamous.

It will be interesting to see if this has a ripple effect into straight marriages. If Mr. and Ms. StraightQPublic see the married gay guys across the street having a happy, loving, long-term family and home without monogamy, will they re-consider the role of monogamy in straight marriages?

We’ll see….