Where you are confused, and what many on the right choose to forget, is that marriage is a religious ceremony that has political and social ramifications. If a couple chooses to live together and commit exclusively to one-another in a loving relationship, then all of the social aspects of marriage should still apply. Ideas like power of attorney, inheritance, even insurance for a spouse are affected by marriage, but gay couples do not have the same benefits. My girlfriend and I are a heterosexual couple so being able to get married is not a problem. We are also both atheists so a wedding as a religious ceremony doesn’t appeal to either of us. However, it is important because of the social implications of marriage. I know that if either of us lost our job, the other would be able to get insurance coverage for both of us if we were married, whereas if we had been a couple for 20 years but couldn’t get or hadn’t gotten married, that would be impossible. If the title, “marriage” is so important, you can keep that. Just provide a secular alternative. We would be perfectly happy to live together in sin in the eyes of your god, so long as we were given the same rights and protections that marriage gives, only without the religious implications.