Agreed, this notion of biblical marriage is a bit misleading.

In the middle ages, marriages were all about wealth creation and the consolidation of power... many marriages being arranged years in advance, and oftentimes with the bride never having met the groom.  I'm not sure how this jives with anything that Robert Stephen Higgins is talking about in his comment.

While I'm not in favour of forcing religious institutions to perform a same-sex marriage, nevertheless, to deny two people the right to a legal union is a little too much government or state interference in the rights of the individual.