Take this op-ed author in the New York Times who seems to suggest that churches ought to be forced to perform same-sex marriages lest life-long discrimination by religious organizations continue. That's the sort of friend to the cause of gay rights that should make one prefer one's enemies. If you make it illegal to not perform same-sex marriages, Churches won't comply. They can't, since they believe that God forbids it, and if they're not there to do God's will, what the heck are they there for? Actually, if they started performing gay marriages because the state ordered them too, I'd have much less respect for them.
What do you do then? You either let them ignore the law or you start a full-scale persecution. The latter is probably the only thing that could reverse the trend towards gay equality in America at this point. What's next? Banning people expressing moral disapproval of homosexuality (however wrong-headed they may be)?
One other thing: this sort of attitude actually gives religious people a legitimate reason to oppose gay marriage (presuming their doctrine's were true in the first place, which they do). If you ask them, "What business is it of yours if I get married or not?" they can quite understandably say, "If we stand by and let you gays get married, then soon you'll be forcing us to abandon our doctrines under penalty of law."
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