But whether a couple is a man and a woman has everything to do with the meaning of marriage.

American couples have gone to such lengths to avoid the interference of in-laws that they have to pay marriage counselors to interfere between them.

Marriage is an institution and that's where a couple finish up.

Straight couples don't have to be monogamous to be married or married to be monogamous. Monogamy no more defines marriage than the presence of children does. Monogamy isn't compulsory and its absence doesn't invalidate a marriage.

Before marriage many couples are very much like people rushing to catch an airplane once aboard they turn into passengers. They just sit there.

The facts are plain: Religious leaders who preside over marriage ceremonies must and will be guided by what they believe. If they do not wish to celebrate marriages for same-sex couples that is their right. The Supreme Court says so. And the Charter says so.

Another argument vaguer and even less persuasive is that gay marriage somehow does harm to heterosexual marriage. I have yet to meet anyone who can explain to me what this means. In what way would allowing same-sex partners to marry diminish the marriages of heterosexual couples?

I think it's something that needs to be said - that there are interracial marriages out there and the couples live happy lives and there's nothing wrong with it.

On rare occasions one does hear of a miraculous case of a married couple falling in love after marriage but on close examination it will be found that it is a mere adjustment to the inevitable.

Take care of him. And make him feel important. And if you can do that you'll have a happy and wonderful marriage. Like two out of every ten couples.