I probably should've said religious institutions and individuals. I don't know, I have never been to keen on marriage as a institution, how it's so weighed down in historical patriarchy kind of makes it poisonous to me. I just find the splitting of hairs over "marriage" and "civil unions" to be nonsense.

That distinction was just created by the a reaction to religious right pressure by activists to make the idea more appealing to the public. In a long term strategic sense we may have shot ourselves in the foot, since it gives people a chance to vote against gay marriage and still feel like they aren't denying a right or a privilege.