Gay Marriage [Hurts / Helps] Straight Marriage

(With Prop 8 in the news - and heavily supported by lying LDS (Mormon) and evangelicals [not saying they always lie, saying they're lying about this - as when they claim churches will have to marry gays or lose their tax-exempt status, obviously false as many civil marriages are between people who'd never find a church], I thought I'd repost this, from October two years ago:)

And the answer is? Well, it's in a study reported in the Wall Street Jurnal, in an article by William Eskridge and Darren Spedale (link to Yale Law School since WSJ is so hard to get):

[T]here is no evidence that allowing same-sex couples to marry weakens the institution. If anything, the numbers indicate the opposite. A decade after Denmark, Norway and Sweden passed their respective partnership laws, heterosexual marriage rates had risen 10.7% in Denmark; 12.7% in Norway; and a whopping 28.8% in Sweden. In Denmark over the last few years, marriage rates are the highest they've been since the early 1970s. Divorce rates among heterosexual couples, on the other hand, have fallen. A decade after each country passed its partnership law, divorce rates had dropped 13.9% in Denmark; 6% in Norway; and 13.7% in Sweden. On average, divorce rates among heterosexuals remain lower now than in the years before same-sex partnerships were legalized.

In addition, out-of-wedlock birthrates in each of these countries contradict the suggestion by social conservatives that gay marriage will lead to great increases in out-of-wedlock births and therefore less family stability for children. In Denmark, the percentage of out-of-wedlock births was 46% in 1989; now it is 45%. In Norway, out-of-wedlock births jumped from 14% in 1980 to 45% right before partnerships were adopted in 1993; now they stand at 51%, a much lower rate of increase than in the decade before same-sex unions. The Swedish trend mirrors that of Norway, with much lower rates of increase post-partnership than pre-partnership.

Is there a correlation, then, between same-sex marriage and a strengthening of the institution of marriage? It would be difficult, and suspect, to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between these trends in heterosexual marriage and marriage rights for gays and lesbians. But the facts demonstrate that there is no proof that same-sex marriage will harm the institution of marriage, or children. An optimistic reading of the facts might even suggest that the energy and enthusiasm that same-sex couples bring to the institution of marriage may cause unmarried heterosexual couples to take a fresh look at marriage as an option.

As they say, you can't say it proves same-sex marriage helps straight marriage (any more than that other huge study proved that religion causes dysfunction in society). But it does pretty much prove that it doesn't hurt.

And a lot of us have been saying for a while, now: stopping people from getting married is what hurts marriage.

So, if you've got a few dollars to spare for the cause of equality, strong families, and saving marriage, donate 'em here, to stop Prop 8.