I found this article by Amanda Marcotte to be totally eye, and head opening. There are the Ayatollahs of the "hard right" in America - think people like Santorum, Huckabee, Douhat, and others of that ilk. They are hostile to "marriage equality," and it never made sense to me. But if you think of their opposition as just one more data point in a broader fight against the empowerment of women, then you can discern a coherent "world-view." It's backward, and retro, and anti-equality, and anti-woman and totally against the forward movement of the progress towards human rights, but it is coherent.
The hard right sees "traditional marriage," as a way of harnessing women. Keeping them at home, raising children, being totally subservient to men. It's a view of women and children as "property." So old world, so retro, so wrong.
So this new conception of marriage, where any two consenting adults can tie the knot, irregardless of sexual persuasion, whether they intend to raise children or not, marrying for love, or companionship, kind of destroys that old conception.
Woman are further emancipated, Gay folks too.
It's a good thing. A necessary thing. And the Ayatollahs of America's hard right have been over-ruled!