Gays do not of course need to get married to earn respect, but it is one of the reasons for having same-sex marriage.
Everyone keeps harping on about procreation, yet those who do have failed to respond to my question about a man and woman getting married when one of them is infertile. If someone does not respond soon I am going to have to assume it is because they have no answer to the question.
One of the most important reasons for having gay marriage is to give same sex partners the same rights that heterosexual married couples take for granted. Imagine what it must be like for a partner of somone dying to be denied hopsital visiting rights because the family objects.
As for adoption, in practice some children are already being brought up by gay couples. It is not difficult for a *** to get pregnant. If a gay man gets custody or his wife has died how many countries have laws that say he cannot bring up his child whilst living with another man. Whatever the causes of homosexuality, there is clearly a biological or hereditary factor involved so being brought up by gays is not going to make you gay. And so what of it does?