Civil unions have been around for a long time. The gay marriage issue was mostly about trying to force people into recognizing a spiritual bond via legislature. The very nature of marriage is a religious one and is quite literally forbidden in most of the religious doctrine. The adoption of marriage by the legal system does not remove the religious aspects of marriage. The homosexual's could have easily pressed for federal recognition of civil union without any debate or uproar. The very insistence of "marriage" was specifically chosen as inflammatory. I would have willingly given up the legal term married and been quite satisfied in all being categorized as civil unions. Marriages could be relegated to religious identification only and given the same rights, privileges and responsibilities as civil unions with the legal framework. This would have been a simple and equitable solution to disentangle religious doctrine from the legal system.