Marriage in gay-marriage-legalizing Massachusetts doing better than ever

James Dobson claimed that gay marriage would "destroy the Earth".

Steve Chapman wrote that letting homosexuals marry would result in "the weakening of marriage as an institution, children at increased risk of broken homes, the eventual legalization of polygamy and who knows what all".

Brian Camenker, President of the Parents' Rights Coalition, wrote that allowing same-sex marriage would have "destabilized the basic institution of our society, which is marriage between a man and a woman".

Dan Englund, of the Massachusetts Family Institute, said that "homosexual unions [and] non-marital heterosexual partnerships", "undermine the institutions of marriage and family".

Senator Wayne Allard (R-CO) claimed that gay marriage is a "master plan" out to "destroy the institution of marriage".

Charles Colson of Christianity Today predicted that same-sex marriage would "[lead] to an explosive increase in family collapse".

Jerry Falwell claimed that "the homosexual effort to destroy the tradition of marriage" had lead to "[t]his nation [being] on the precipice of moral devastation".

Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo said that gay marriage is a "crime" that "represents the destruction of the world".

There are plenty more of these pleasant, optimistic quotes out there, but I've had my fill by now.

Why am I reposting these canards? Because they've yet again been proven utterly wrong: the state of Massachusetts, which has now been allowing same-sex couples to wed for over five years, is currently seeing its best era of marriage stability and prosperity, both for heterosexual and homosexual unions, since pre-WWII times.

How do you say ... "Eat this, bitches?"

According to the most recent data from the National Center For Vital Statistics, Massachusetts retains the national title as the lowest divorce rate state, and the MA divorce rate is about where the US divorce rate was in 1940, prior to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor that triggered the US entrance into World War Two.

Provisional data from 2008 indicates that the Massachusetts divorce rate has dropped from 2.3 per thousand in 2007 down to about 2.0 per thousand for 2008. What does that mean ? To get a sense of perspective consider that the last time the US national divorce rate was 2.0 per thousand (people) was 1940. You read that correctly. The Massachusetts divorce rate is now at about where the US divorce rate was the year before the United States entered World War Two.

Oof ... that's just gotta hurt, being a right-wing bigoted kook and getting served with such a hefty dose of bitchslappin' facts that tear down every single pathetic argument you've ever made to try and deny homosexuals the fundamental right to wed ... Ah.

Of course, Massachusetts is only one battle in the war (the war to prove which side is correct in their assertions about gay marriage and its effects, that is), and don't you know the cranks will just pull that excuse up to show how it "proves nothing". It's called "proof of concept", amigos – you've just been served with a nice cold dish of reality. Eat it up while it lasts.

(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

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