It's my understanding that interracial marriage has been legal in all states since the Supreme Court ruled that state law barring interracial marriage was unconstitutional. If memory serves, that was at least 40 years ago.

Anyway, I understand your thinking on gay marriage and I think that it is about time we had a solution too. Personally, my wife and I have talked about it and we don't think we should have been allowed to be married. Best we can determine is that historically, marriage began as a church union under which the church has authority while civil unions, by definition, fall under the authority of civil (not religious) authority. Therefore, since we were not joined by the authority of a religious organization but by civil authority, we should have a civil union not a marriage. In fact, we think that anyone (hetero or homosexual) who is married by a Justice of the Peace or in a city hall should be recognized as a civil union - and anyone who is married in a church should be recognized as having a marriage...

Then we can talk about how they are legally the same.