People seem to miss the point about marriage as it concerns the law. Legal marriage is about responsibilities and not about rights.  Legal marriage is about society’s well being and not about an individual’s happiness.  A man and a woman can create new life, and thus new citizens, this is an important reality to the state.  New life is a great benefit to the state and society.  New life means new ideas, a stronger workforce, and future generations.  However new life requires an investment of resources and time.  The state cannot raise every child that is brought into this world.  The state relies heavily on the mother and father to take care of the child and form a family.  The state creates legal marriages to encourage men and women to not only get married, and create future generations, but also encourages men and women to stay married and to help men and women support and raise these new citizens.  The state does this for the benefit of society, not the individual men and women.  The ‘benefits’ of marriage come with a price tag: the responsibility to the state and society, to raise fine upstanding citizens.  With this in mind there is no reason for a legalized form of gay marriage.  Two people of the same sex living together and loving each other is irrelevant to the state as they cannot create new citizens.  There is no reason for the state to encourage this life style, which is why it should not.