True, and that’s a fairly recent development; however, I would argue that many, even most, heterosexual marriages were about intimate sexual relationships between 2 people to something endorsed and celebrated by the State when in a committed relationship. Therefor having two men or two women instead of one of each doesn’t change the fundamental nature of what many, or even most, people think marriage was…
Traditional
"A permanent union between a man and a woman, formed by God, for the purpose of unity between the spouses and the creation and education of a family. "
Modern
“A semi-permanent union between two people formed by the state for the purposes of publicly declaring one’s love, distributing property, and entering into a long term relationship.”
With the exception of dropping the gender identities of the spouses involved, most of the changes between the traditional meaning and the modern meeting were already put in place. No-fault divorce and remarriage transformed marriage from a permanent union to a semi-permanent union. Marriage ceased to a vocation oriented towards creating a family with the rise of childless couples, contraception, and marriage-less families. The spiritual dimension of marriage fell with the decline of organized religion. All of these shifts in the culture surrounding marriage took place well before the rise of same-sex unions.
The point is that marriage was re-defined, and traditional marriage forgotten and/or abandoned, well before same-sex marriage become thrust into the public eye…
