You're (obviously) absolutely right. I was only 13 or 14 when gay marriage became legal in my country (back in 2001, I live in the Netherlands), but I can still remember how [i]angry[/i] some people got about that. I could never understand how you could feel so much hatred against other people doing something that makes them happy. Something that doesn't affect them in any way. And now, ten years later, it's obvious that gay marriage will never become illegal again. Sure, some people are still against it, but it's pretty much part of Dutch culture now. There's even a sort of pride in the fact that we were the first country to legalize it.

It's weird looking at the US these days (the gay rights issue in the US is followed very closely over here). We, like many Americans, just can't understand why this is taking so long. There's one thing I can promise you (something you already know): when it will get legalized in the US, it won't take long until people start looking back with disgust at these years of endless debate. As long as gay people aren't allowed something as simple as declaring their love for each other by marriage, they'll always be second-rate citizens. It's as simple as that, and that is, as you said, a tragedy.