Couldn't the same be said for another other minority rights?  People always feared that there would be a backlash.

The only compromise is to make all relationships "civil unions" under the law and make "marriage" mean nothing except as a church thing.

Society is moving forward, as young people are a lot more accepting of gays.  Sadly it takes 10,000 years before politics catches up.

BTW, do a bit of googling, gays have been getting married throughout history.  It's only in the last few centuries that people have gone mental over it.