My thoughts:
Marriage is s religious thing. Civil unions are a legal thing. I see the two as separate and I don't think the government should be telling a church what it has to do. Is it just a word? No not really. I say that because you change the meaning of one word, you end up opening the door and stepping onto a very slippery slope. NOW, I am for gays getting into civil unions. If you love someone, you love someone.
So long as they are held to ALLLLLLL of the same legal standards as the rest of us: alimony, child support etc. There are many men out there who have been slapped with child support simply because they established the "relationship" as the father. YES, it does happen, look it up So, I do expect that to happen to the other men and women who marry and divorce. Equality can be a bitch
I do see that community trying to skip around all of that though.