Same sex marriage / Intermarriage
No Conservative rabbi will officiate at an intermarriage. But are there any among us here in the USA who would tolerate a civil law that *prohibited* intermarriage? We would all be incensed.
Most of us would vigorously protest a ban on these marriages - marriages that we would not perform. We recognize the differences between the religious and civil sphere.
Similarly, there are those among us who will decline to officiate at a same sex marriage on religious grounds. But it does not follow logically that such individuals need necessarily oppose the legality of such marriages in a civil context. And were we to oppose the change, we would still need to accept the subsequent reality.
Regarding intermarriage: some of us are welcoming to such couples and some of us are not. Most of us are welcoming, However, even those of us who are strongly opposed to such marriages, do we not recognize these marriages as de facto marriages? How, then, do we view the relationship between the husband and wife (or in the case of a same sex marriage, these spouses) except as a spousal relationship? Are they not married? It is nissuin, even if it is not nissuin kedat Moshe vYisrael. Our acceptance of the reality, even if it is with disapproval, validates these marriages.