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I see all this arguing one way or the other as a big waste of time - to me the answer is simple: As long as the following hold true in society, there is no logical basis to restrict marriage to any particular group of people...

- Married heteros have no monopoloy of the success of long-term relationships, being that half end in divorce.
- Many married couples decide to not have children, so the idea of marriage being for procreation is not always true.
- More and more couples are choosing not to marry, but live happily in long-term common-law relationships, many of which involve multiple children.
- Gay people can adopt children just like hetero people, whether they are part of a couple/union/gay marriage or not.
- If two people want to be together and enjoy benefits of a union, this is already possible under civil union or common-law regardless of the sex of the two people, so granting the mantle of "married" is just semantics and really only offers a few more benefits in terms of asset division should the couple separate.

My "wife" and I have been together 10 years, and have 3 children, along with a big house in the country and 2 cars. She and the children enjoy all the benefits my group health plan at work offers, we can income-split and take advantage of child credits and other tax benefits since one of us works and the other stays at home, and we co-own the property and have other shared assets. Yet we - gasp - have never been actually married. Anyone who would call my children "illegitimate" to my face would get a smackdown - they are happy well-adjusted kids and get along just fine even though we are only common-law. Likewise the thought that people don't take you seriously unless you are married is a crock - I'd say about a third of our friends and also the families of kids at the school, are not in fact married but are common-law. Nobody cares anymore whether you're married or not and have kids. This is very common now, especially in Quebec where we live. The trend is growing elsewhere as well, rapidly.

The whole concept of pair bonding in the 21st century has changed dramatically. The old rules and conventions just don't apply, whether gay or straight or transgender or whatever. I say there's no logical argument against gay marriage, only philosophical or moral ones that hold no water since they cannot be shown to be any better in non-gay unions.

And as for all this "traditional marriage" stuff - if you really want to define that you'd have to go back to ancient times, where a "traditional marriage" involved an arrangement between the adults and the spouses-to-be had little or no say in their destiny. Marriage has evolved a great deal over the centuries, for instance inter-racial or inter-religion marriages were all but banned (or greatly frowned upon) until just a few decades ago. Gay marriage is just another evolution.

Jes' sayin'