The key thing now will be to see if there will be any exemptions allowed in society to a genderless definition of marriage. Will clergy who refuse to perform same-sex marriages be able to keep their ability to solemnize vows in the eyes of the state? I could see that changing in the next couple years.
I don't see the issue. Clergy are not employees of the state, and churches/places of worship are not places of public accommodation. I don't think anyone's seriously saying that pastors who are against gay marriage should be required to perform them anyway. What supporters of gay marriage
are asking is that the state recognizes same-sex marriages and affords them equal rights and protections under the law.
Religious beliefs are a private matter (not "private' in the colloquial sense, but in the legal/constitutional sense) , and a
particular religious belief (e. g. opposing homosexuality) should never be a basis for legally codified discrimination. Same-sex marriage is a public issue, since it concerns state discrimination that has been legally codified. That is what I wish more opponents of gay marriage would understand.
