Ok. I DON'T UNDERSTAND THE POINT OF GAY MARRIAGE!

I'm gay. Been with my partner for 25 years. Never felt the need to get married. There really isn't any need. Our wills and pensions are signed over to each other. We share some stuff (bills) and are independent with other stuff (bank accounts). I always thought marriage was for religious people or for couples with children so it never even crossed my mind to ever get married.

Civil partnership seemed the perfect thing for people with more complicated financial affairs, like property, that needed protected contractually. And also for anyone who really wanted a public ceremony. I still thought of marriage as a religious ceremony for straight couples.

Now I'm surrounded by friends and acquaintances who are not religious but who get married. They call their partners 'husband' and call it a "wedding anniversary", regardless of whether it was a marriage or a civil partnership from earlier. The fact that they might have been together for 10 or more years isn't celebrated at all! They just start counting from the wedding ceremony.

I can only call my partner, "partner" or "boyfriend" and am now not sure whether we really should celebrate an anniversary every year as our relationship has never been formalised. I feel we're looked down on by married gay couples for not getting married. I think it sounds weird to call each other 'husband' and I've never felt the urge to have a public ceremony about my personal affairs.

And I think marriage IS a religious ceremony and on the whole religion is anti-gay. SO why gay people would want to be part of it is beyond me.

So that's what I think about gay marriage.