Marriage as a contract seems to be, frankly, a holdover from the days when women were property. Why else would there be a contract? In that vein, I think I am more against marriage in general than pro-gay marriage, if that makes sense. No, I cannot ken why a couple (or larger group) who consider themselves a family should be considered not so by anyone outside the group. I guess I don't see why, outside of religion/sin/etc., it would MATTER whether you had signed a paper somewhere or not. Yes, I think that you should have the right to consider your loved ones as part of your family even if you happen to have similar genitalia. But my ancestors have been routinely thrown out of whatever church they belonged to (generally something Quaker, talk about tolerant, and still they got thrown out for being TOO tolerant) for thinking stuff like that, or acting on it... I prefer to belong to no church so that it doesn't come up so much.