Mr. Speaker, my view of the matter is all kinds of approaches could have been adopted to take in the issue of equality. For instance, France has refused to create the concept of same sex marriage, but it does have a form of civil union. So do some other European countries, none of which immediately come to mind.
There are creative solutions to what I believe to be the legitimate aspirations of same sex people to have their unions recognized in the same manner and same social standing that marriage confers on a couple.
The approach by those who advocate for same sex marriage has been to simply gut the rationale for marriage and turn it into a relationship between two people. Therefore, at the end of the day, marriage will only mean a relationship between two people, which in my view does not accord with my sense of what, and I hope almost everyone else's sense, marriage is all about.