I think you missed my point.
Marriages are typically associated with religion, doesnt matter what religion, but religion. A civil union occurs by a court. You can be recognized as having either. Some people do both. They will get married in another country and then do a civil union in their own to make sure it is recognized.
I'm saying that legally, gay couples should be able to call their union a marriage if it happened in the manner of any religion (there are more churches than you think).
Legally I will have a civil union cause I have no intentions of having a holy marriage. but yeah, I'll still call it a marriage.
Who cares what you call it publicly, it is what goes on paper that is the matter that was up. And now marriage is defined as being between a Man and Woman.
So you can only have a "marriage" as a religious deal if you are a man and a woman, but you can have a civil union if you are a man and a woman or a gay couple.
This is why it is both religions and civil rights.