Michael,

You say you support the concept of civil unions, but want to reserve the right for religious institutions to control the concept of marriage. What you don't say is whether you expect that those religious institutions would all adopt the same policies, which I think they would not. I can think of several groups, such as the ELCA Lutherans, Unitarian Universalists, certain reformed branches of Judaism, etc that do support and perform gay union ceremonies.

So, in your world, I could go to the county courthouse and get a civil union to my partner, and I could go to the church of my choice and get a marriage ceremony. How does that really differ, legally, from what Massachussets is doing today? I guess I don't get it.

I also would point out that the Federal Marriage Amendment would make your vision an impossibility. Do you support the FMA?

--Dan.