How it is to be expected from the politically active who care more about words than practical effects. Same with Row, same with the Trans.

I'm happy to concede the opposite and say it doesn't matter if it's called marriage or not either, it's just a matter of what is politically feasible now. Would you rather put your chips in marriage alone and fight long and hard for that all the while slowly but surely galvanizing a resistance that will not sleep once you have it, or would you prefer a civil union now that even most religious evangelicals are going to probably support. Since really while the truly hateful of the gays extremists exist, they are rare and largely not evangelical types. Evangelicals are more like "those poor poor gay people need Jesus to save them from hell" and won't be concerned with the legal minutia of inheritance or any other legal ins and outs.

It is important to remember though that the politically active dominionist arm of the republican party would see their ideology codified into law if they had the power base, they do not, but we need to take their positions seriously when arguing against them. Otherwise the slippery slope begins to take effect and you will see the more extreme arms that aren't ever satisfied and need to move constantly to new issues will eventually seek to ban things like cohabitation and sex outside of marriage. Enforcement quagmires be damned when fighting for Jesus god will work it out.

They are no different than progressives in their larger ideological strokes, authoritarianism. Denial of material reality, a desire to shape society in their utopian image and a shunning of anyone that points out differently. A desire to impose their own ideology on everyone else since they believe strongly they are absolutely correct and morally driven to do so because it's better for you. Very condescending.

These people have always existed in society, I believe it goes hand in hand with cluster B type personality disorders. Whether they latch onto what we paint as the left of right ideological extremes is really more a case of what they are exposed to when young and what is available for them. But don't be fooled into thinking that there's a fundamental difference between their broader ideological leanings and behavior. The horseshoe only rings true on the low resolution towards a tendency for authoritarian and extreme solutions. If you are gay in Iran a religious theology you either transition to being a woman or you are put to death. If you are gay in the UK there's a very good chance you'll be convinced that you are woman and transjtion and if you don't you'll "end up killing yourself".

Yet in both countries the very low resolution reality and practical nature of it is extremely similar.

If gay become woman.

If not become woman die.

Less extreme in Britain, for the moment. But no less true.