"Defense of marriage" - or defense of homophobia?

What exactly are "defenders of traditional marriage" protecting marriage from? As far as I know, not a single advocate of gay marriages has suggested the end of traditional man/woman marriages. Here in Canada, gay marriage is legal and as far as I know, all the men/woman couples who were married before..... are *still* married! Think about it.... gay marriage is legal in most Canadian provinces and the sky hasn't fallen yet. So what's the problem with gay marriage? Why the panic among devotees of traditional marriage?

So if gay marriage isn't a threat to marriage, what is it a threat to? As far as I can tell, it's only a threat to socially accepted homophobia, and that's what the self-styled "Defenders of traditional marriage" are really concerned about. They don't like homosexuality and they like society's growing acceptance of it even less. Gay marriage is yet another signal of that growing acceptance, and that makes it something to be opposed.

(Of course, homophobes never call it "homophobia". They style themselves as defenders of decency, morality, and the family, or some such rubbish. Of course, what gay adults do in their bedrooms is no more indecent or immoral than what millions of straight adults do every day, and gay people pose no threat to anyone's family. But some skulls are a little too thick to receive these ideas.)

I wonder: how many supporters of the recent anti-gay marriage proposals in the US secretly knew (and were proud) that they were voting for homophobia? And how many of them were otherwise decent people who were bamboozled into thinking they were saving an institution of marriage that didn't need saving?