I have married thriteen couples. I'm about to do a marriage next month.

It's only fair that stable gay relationships of long standing should have the same rights and responsibilities as married couples. I know the image of gay marriage is to some people horrific and ludicrous.

I support allowing gay couples to marry because of - not in spite of - my values. And many of those values are the same ones deeply held by those who do not believe in gay marriage.

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.

If you made a list of reasons why any couple got married and another list of the reasons for their divorce you'd have a hell of a lot of overlapping.

However saying that I totally support the concept of civil partnerships in the eyes of the law and think it a disgrace that same sex couples have had to wait so long for legal rights protection and recognition.

I contend the state ought to do its thing and provide legal rights for all couples who want to be joined together for life. The church should bless unions that it sees fit to bless and they should be called marriages.

I don't know of many evangelicals who want to deny gay couples their legal rights. However most of us don't want to call it marriage because we think that word has religious connotations and we're not ready to see it used in ways that offend us.