"Jesus would rather kill, not marry, gay people" - Franklin Graham

[Angrboda]

Exactly. it's the biggest objection to gay marriage. And it is an absolutely trivial one considering the legal context. Why the heat over a definition like this unless it is due to bigotry? Seriously. What other reason would there be to get this bent out of shape in having two men in a legal marriage?

All that is required is that legally, the bond between gays is exactly the same as the bond between straights.

No one cared about opposing civil unions--which would have provided the legal framework of equal rights. Why was that not enough? 

Part of the problem was that civil unions did not in fact provide equal rights. Thus the push for gay marriages. Whether or not people would have been satisfied with civil unions if they had done so, we'll never know. I think what most people are arguing, contra your view, is that it is a question of whether the institution should change or not, and there is plenty of push to accommodate such a change. Would religious people object to a separate institution that was essentially identical to marriage but involving same-sex couples? I rather suspect they would. That seems to be supported by history. Ultimately, the religious objection to gay marriage appears to rest on religiously sanctioned opposition to homosexuality. The idea that the debate is about changing the definition of the word seems disingenuous and an attempt to get around the actual substance of the issue. Are religious people necessarily bigoted for following a prescription dictated by their religion? Perhaps that's a more relevant question, the answer to which, I don't know.