Politicized evangelicals are a lot more interested in homosexuality than any writer or character in the bible.
Honestly, there's more written in the bible about food taboos than gay sex. And when it comes to sexual sins, adultery pops up 100 times more frequently than sodomy.
But to judge by the rants and ink spread by politicized right wing evangelicals on the topic, one would think that Jesus came to save us from being butt-raped by bad Samaritans. (He didn't.)
We can handle the topic better than the Republicans did, however, especially with the platform of the majority party in both houses of Congress. Proponents of equal rights for gay couples can do more with honey than tar, metaphorically speaking.
It's a shame and a disgrace when Republicans cynically used the bogeyman of "Gay Marriage" to scare, divide, polarize and manipulate voters. But we don't do much better when we fight back on the same battleground.
Justice is served when gay couples have equal partnership rights as heterosexually married couples. But when we get hung up on insisting on having "Gay Marriage" we are just playing into the polarizing paradigm of corrupt Republicans.
Marriage is a culturally-based contract, entrenched for most Americans in the sphere of religion. Weddings take place in churches. Churches are basically just organizations of humans bound together to share worship and common purpose.
Equal partnership rights is the goal. We should fight for that and insist on receiving that from our government, at all levels. And if you are gay and you can find a church or community of like-minded people that will recognize and celebrate your union (and there are plenty of open-minded churches to choose from), then get "married" there.
But let's be sensitive enough to recognize that when we shout back that we want GAY MARRIAGES!!, many christians take that to mean that we want the government to force their own church to start holding weddings for homosexual couples.
And that is wrong. We don't want that. Government should stay out of churches just as much as churches should stay out of government. But when we limit our argument to their terms, that nuance is lost.
ADDENDUM AND RESPONSE TO COMMENTS:
I am an idealist. But getting stuck in shorthand is part of what leads to intractable conflicts here. "Religion"? Most people here use that word to refer to the actions of politicized christian evangelicals. Republican demagogues drum up strategies to hold power by activating fears. Many leaders of evangelical churches in Colorado and every state take the bait, and try to mobilize their members on that basis.
That's not religion. That's not Christianity. That's cynical, corrupt manipulation.
Unfortunately, we let them win when we let them control the language of the debate.
Every state needs to change its laws so that gay couples have the same rights as heterosexually married couples.
Many commentators seem threatened by the suggestion that rhetoric matters. But let's keep our eyes on the prize: the final battle is won when every gay couple can call themselves married, their unions are recognized by every level of government, and the rest of the country realizes that there wasn't anything to be afraid of in gay marriage in the first place.