A false argument. Your idea no doubt is that the clerk doesn't care what you do in your bedroom, only that the two parties seeking a license are male and female. The real question is, how does it help me achieve the fulfillment of my "right" to choose a life partner and marry when the choice is so severely limited as to be useless? Conservatives look at it exclusively from their perspective: "Hell, I don't want any new right to marry another man! I like the law just as it is! Suits me fine!" Well, the law isn't about you, or me, or any individual. It's about being fair to all citizens as long as government has decided it's in the marriage business. And like it or not, the government needs to be responsive to its gay and lesbian constituents as well as its straight constituents. The point of civil marriage is to allow you to form a recognized partnership with your mirror image, your alter ego -- someone with the same capacity to enter into the relationship (thus, no minors or dogs or fire hydrants). As there's only one of you, there's only one of them. And only you can determine from the pool of available life partners which one is going to fulfill your right to and needs/objective in forming a couple. It is cruel and disingenuous to tell me, a gay man, that my most intimate life choice is limited to the pool of females. It's no different than telling straight men that, unfortunately, women are off-limits as far as licenses go and your only marriage option is to another male. As long as government confers and recognizes "marriage", limiting my life partner options to only half of the available population is dictating to me what my fundamental orientation should be.