On the to topic of gay marriage. The absence thereof is often blamed on the church and religion. Yet, religion, in this context, have nothing to do with marriage. A marriage can be executed after paying a fee to and acquiring a licence from the state, and is essentially a tax agreement that is purchased.
Why is this agreement needed? Because it bundles a number of tax related laws and treats the married couple as a unit with certain rights. However, there is absolutely nothing that hinders the state to give this non-religious status to any two people that voluntarily want to enter a "marriage", or a union, whether those two people are in love, siblings, best friends or use it as a business transaction. There is also nothing that hinders the state to involve more than two people. People shouldn't have to go through the process of marriage at all to being able to enter a union
Whatever the people that are involved in the union swear before, god, goddess, symbol, book, mountain, the sky, the universe, etc., have nothing to do with anybody else but those people and whomever they share it with. Now, if a celebratory and/or religious ceremony is held, a union can be conducted by private religious or civic institutions and then people can simply register the union to the state if they want to. If they do and the marriage ends, the union can be terminated with the state and everything goes back to like it was before.
If you find this situation unfair, blame the state, and only the state. To the state a marriage license is but one out of many revenue generating business transaction collected from fees, licenses, contracts, stamps and other arbitrary numerous sources covering a wide variety of areas.
