Gay rights has been an issue in the country for quite some time now. As everyone knows the separation of church and state is one of the core values of our country, so why not continue the trend. We should remove the word marriage from the government and recognize everyone as in civil unions.
With civil unions, gender would not matter and everyone would have equal rights in all matters that we hold to marriage now. This would allow the church to retain the 'sanctity of marriage' and keep it as something that would have to be preformed and approved by a church.