text: I agree with you to a degree.\n\nFirst of all it is disgusting to me that South Africa is so far ahead of the US in gay rights.\n\nI think the state needs to get out of the marriage business. State sanctioned unions should have always been called something other than marriage.\n\nTo me marriage is a religious ritual....it is between me, the person I love, our community of faith and our God. Why would the government need to be part of that?\n\nCivil unions grant the legal rights of a marriage and are appropriate for the state to perform. \n\nOf course, in reality the state is never going to stop doing straight marriages, so we deserve nothing short of equal treatment.