Regarding Gay Marriage, nearly every state that has had a gay marriage initiative on their ballets has failed.
Everyone agrees that gay couples deserve the same rights as non gay couples and no one would prevent them from obtaining those same rights with the exception of the word "marriage." For some reason at this point in time most people feel that the word "marriage" does not mean man with man, women with women, but man and a women. Eventually this will change and people will go to adopt it as a normal part of life, just as they have with many other controversial issues in the past. Give it time and time will settle this issue.
I have four or five key issues that keep me firmly in the middle zone between the two parties. I value a lot of what both parties stand for but feel that overall "freedom" is the key issue. When a few want to take the rights of the many away I tend to get a bit frustrated and that is what moved me out of the democratic party. With republicans the focus is on big business and they don't care that the little guy gets trampled upon while the big wigs profit and avoid jail. This aspect of the Republican philosophy makes me ill to my core. Both parties have very good merits while on the flip side they both have a huge negative side.
Given a choice between the two parties I have to vote the issue that is most important to me and that determines more than anything, whom I will vote for. I have often voted for both democrats and republicans and generally feel that they work best when they share power.