"It is not good for man to be alone."
Before one can learn that 8+5=13, he must first learn what a number is. (Note 'learn', not regurgitate what someone else says - you don't have to learn anything to do that.)
In biblical math, just like arithmetic, a priority of learning is required. Priority usually means first in order, but also means most important, or highest level. You have to start at the right place to get to the right answer. This whole line of thinking by conservative Christianity about marriage, family values, etc. starts someplace. Where?
It starts with the first thing that God said was not good when he created the heavens and earth.
God solved the problem (his math) by creating Eve for Adam. Yes, I know it's Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. My point is that it's also not Adam and Twila or Don and Eve or John, Dick, Harry and Eve, or any other combination. Eve was God's gift to Adam and vise versa. A specific, intentional and perfect gift from a loving father who intended "very good".
Eve was a help mate, a soul mate, a part of Adam and a completion of him. Eve to Adam shows us a picture, an arch type, of God's remedy to a problem he called "not good". This arch type is so important the the Church made it a sacrament. A holy thing. A very good thing.
Adam's Eve couldn't have been another man (if that were true, Eve might have been Steve). My Eve cannot be a woman. What am I supposed to do? Fake it? Live a lie with a girl that I promised to become one with? Many gay men have tried this answer. It doesn't work, and the fallout is disastrous for all involved.
Or am I supposed to be alone? We already know that God himself said this was not good.
Hence the rock and the hard place that gay men who love God are caught in. I lived there for many years, thinking that it is better to be alone (not good) than to sin against God (not good). Who will rescue me from this conundrum? Sound a little like Romans 5?
Then my own arch type showed up. A guy I worked with was in a gay relationship that went south after many years. I've never seen anyone hurt so bad. And (unlike straight couples) there were no resources available to him for help. The church, the God ordained source for godly wisdom, counseling and help, offered only condemnation. I wanted to help. With a pure heart, I sought God about how to help. I used the biblical concepts that I learned over the years at church. They worked well, and my friend's relationship was restored.
(It didn't last, though. My friend turned into a bitter old man, and a creep at that. I'm genuinely sorry to have lost him. But I'm more sad that I lost the only arch type I had ever seen of what a real relationship between two men could be. )