The definition of marriage has radically changed many times in human history, & there's no such thing as "natural law". The Bible mentions six different kinds of marriage aside from a consentual union of one man and one woman, none of which would be legal today. Practically every concievable type of "marriage" has been practiced by one group or another: societies have been observed in which women are "married" off before even being concieved and may be bartered by their "husbands" as currency; societies have been observed in which all men practice ritual homosexuality and only visit their wives for reproductive purposes. As gay Americans, we find such societies to be bizarre and distasteful, but their existence demonstrates that the contemporary idea of the heterosexual nuclear family has not been an unchanged standard for all of human history. Marriage as we know it today came about in the 20th century, with women obtaining equal rights and the Supreme Court ordering that interracial couples must be permitted to marry. Marriage has withstood countless changes over the hundreds of thousands of years of human history, and will continue long after gay people have joined the ranks of married couples.

We want to get married. Destroying marriage would be completely counter to our goals. By all means we want our heterosexual friends and family to get married! We want them to be happy.

Those who think our being able to legally marry will someone "destroy the institution of marriage" need to step back and look at the state of their own marriages these days. Just look at the divorce rate. Infidelity. Out-of-wedlock children. Emotional and physical abuse. And, just look at how some folks go through marriages like kleenex! Remember Britney's drunken Vegas wedding that she annuled a few days later? Not to mention...how long did her marriage to K-Fed last? I have an uncle who's on his FIFTH marriage. Come on, people! How could we "damage" it any more than it already has been?