Um...what is stopping Congress from simply making a "Domestic Partnership"="Marriage" in terms of rights, and calling what we currently call "Marriage" by the State a "Domestic Partnership"? Marriage has been a religious word for quite some time, is there any particular reason people who hate religion in general want to take it? Let religions have their word and basically no one will oppose this, I fail to see the difference between a Domestic Partnership and a Marriage if they give equal rights, except that a certain class of people want to believe they are different because they are "married" rather than "domestic partners".
If someone can point out the problem with that please do so, but it seems to me that would clear up what stupid debate there is over this easily. Sure there will always be bigots who just hate gay people, most of whom are religious, but there is nothing we can do to stop that, so why bother trying to upset them when a whole other class of people who are not bigots and have nothing against gays just want to retain their tradition? Just let gays be Domestic Partners with the same full legal rights as anyone else, same as anyone else joined by the State. The only reason it was called Marriage by the State in the first place was because almost all of the Founding Fathers were Christians, now that most people in Government couldn't give two shits what any religion thinks apart from what it means for them voting-wise, I really don't see why the State just doesn't move on as a whole and stop upsetting people for no good reason.