Opponents of same-sex marriage failed in their attempt to pass a proposed constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in Massachusetts. A joint session of the Legislature swiftly defeated the propsal — without debate — by a vote of 45 to 151, eliminating any chance of getting it on the ballot in November 2008.
It’s a done deal, folks. They couldn’t even muster 25% of the Legislature behind them. The more folks who live with same-sex marriages around them as a regular thing, the more the opposition wilts.
As to the pernicious effect that “gay marriage” is having on “traditional marriage” — well, lessee:
The state with the lowest divorce rate in the nation is Massachusetts. At latest count it had a divorce rate of 2.4 per 1,000 population, according to data supplied by the US Census Bureau.
Oddly enough, the states with the highest divorce rates are in the Bible Belt — the divorce rates in these conservative states are roughly 50 percent above the national average of 4.2 per thousand people.
Makes ya think. (Of course, if conservative Christians were big on thinking, we wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place, now would we….)
Weird (the divorce rates) I guess that one could argue that Massachusetts is also probably one of the wealthier, better-educated states, which might have a bigger impact on divorce than religious and political views, but you never know exactly what it is. Could be something in the water…but I do agree that allowing gays to marry does not pose any harm to the marriage of “traditional” couples.
Also, I just found out that my great uncle (who was born in the 1890s) was gay. He was a really nice man and lived with one partner for 60+ years (I believe he out-lived his partner. They did not separate. That is devotion.)
Ignore previous comment. I am brain dead today.
I am pleased that 3 out of 4 states in which I’ve lived are moving in the right direction on this.
(Of course, Wisconsin had to go and totally, utterly fuck it up.)
Now see, you’re trying to throw facts in the face of conservatism. Don’t you realize that the facts are inherently liberal-leaning? Give it up, mister!
I am from Massachusetts, and worked on this issue politically, and I could not be more pleased. MA outlawed slavery before any other U.S. state (in 1783), and now once again we stand at the forefront of humanist thinking. Forgive me if I gloat, but it makes a boy proud.
May the rest of the Union’s states soon give their citizens equal cause for pride!
Gareth, have you read The Authoritarians? http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/
I don’t know if it explains so much as categorising, but it lets me release some headspace thinking “OK, starting to argue against authoritarian follower. no good can come of this, bail out” on occassion.
Kinda makes one weep for ole’ Kansas.
I read a wonderful op-ed piece by a female conservative (sorry can’t remember her name) in the Topeka Journal World on this topic. From her point of view it us *straits* and our insistence that marriage be about “romantic love” that has caused the instability in modern marriages.
I think she’s right.