As a kid, I never could understand why adults got so wound up about homosexuality. I assumed that their problem with it was that premarital sex was forbidden by the Bible, and because gay couples couldn't get married, that automatically meant they were doomed to "live in sin" on a permanent basis. As an 11-year-old, I never could figure out why the government didn't just legalize gay marriage so everybody would have the right to live in accordance with what I had been taught was God's will for humanity. To do anything less seemed grossly unfair.
Twentysomething years later, I still can't figure it out, and it still seems unfair. But more importantly, as the religious right beats the drum of homophobia harder and harder, I have to wonder whether any of these folks have thought about what they're really asking the government to do when they ask for a ban on gay marriage.
Marriage is a sacrament. When the government passes a law that prevents certain individuals from getting married, it is, in effect, deciding who can or cannot receive a sacrament.
If you are Christian, that should terrify you.
If the government can decide that it doesn't count when a Unitarian minister officiates a gay wedding, it could just as easily decide that it doesn't count when a Methodist minister performs a baptism or a Catholic priest hears confession. What if the government had the right to decide who could and could not be ordained as a preacher? And what's to stop Congress from passing a law stating that only members of a certain group can receive communion?
Once we start down the slippery slope of allowing Congress to regulate sacraments, there's no logical stopping point.
There is incredible danger in allowing religious fervor to trump the First Amendment ... and the primary danger is to religion itself, which can exist and operate freely in this country only to the extent that the Constitution is allowed to protect it.