From a civil rights standpoint, the correctness of gay marriage is obvious. . . As long as marriage exists, the status must be open to all adults straight, G, L, B, T, Q, or not sexually connected at all. A strong argument being made on behalf of the Massachusetts plaintiffs is that the current law violates the state constitution's declaration that "all people are born free and equal." (emphasis added)

In 1972 the National Coalition of Gay Organizations demanded the "repeal of all legislative provisions that restrict the sex or number of persons entering into a marriage unit; and the extension of legal benefits to all persons who cohabit regardless of sex or numbers."

Charlize gushes, "When I met Stuart I was like, 'No, I'm never going to get married. I'm going to be like Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell. Who needs a piece of paper?'

"But everything about Stuart is so similar to where I come from and what I believe in - morals and family values. And Stuart's made me see that there's something really beautiful about a ritual, about an occasion where you say out loud in front of people close to you, 'I want to be with you for the rest of my life'."

[Researchers] found wealthier couples with children suffer a drop in marital satisfaction three times larger than that experienced by middle-class or low-income parents. They also discovered that couples who became parents over the last decade experienced a drop in marriage satisfaction twice as large as that reported by parents in the 1960s and 1970s.
...
Twenge said wealthier couples may be reporting higher levels of marriage dissatisfaction because they experience a greater loss of control over their previous lifestyle after having children. Couples with less money may not have to sacrifice as much of their lifestyles when kids come into the picture.

Before leaving the question of divorce, I should like to distinguish two things which are very often confused. The Christian conception of marriage is one: the other is the quite different question--how far Christians, if they are voters or Members of Parliament, ought to try to force their views of marriage on the rest of the community by embodying them in the divorce laws. A great many people seem to think that if you are a Christian yourself you should try to make divorce difficult for every one. I do not think that. At least I know I should be very angry if the Mahommedans tried to prevent the rest of us from drinking wine. My own view is that the Churches should frankly recognise that the majority of the British people are not Christians and, therefore, cannot be expected to live Christian lives. There ought to be two distinct kinds of marriage: one governed by the State with rules enforced on all citizens, the other governed by the Church with rules enforced by her on her own members. The distinction ought to be quite sharp, so that a man knows which couples are married in a Christian sense and which are not.

When gay marriage comes, it should have the same expectations of monogamy as straight marriage and adultery should be regarded with the same degree of social stigma. If couples don't want those rules they can stay ummarried or remain domestic partners or the like.

Just "to test the waters," I put an advertisement in the Berkeley, California weekly newspaper, The Bay Area Guardian�. To secure a more balanced sample, I then put advertisements in Ms. Magazine, Graduate Woman, 50 Plus, National Enquirer, True Romance, Modern Romance, Psychology Today, Mother Jones, Globe, The Sun, and The Examiner, and True Story.

Changing myths seems impossible, especially when there are advantages to some people to keep them. The myth that the two-parent family is the best is just that�a myth. Myths serve an important purpose and are the basis of religion and governments. But they are not based on fact.

Stephenson's attack on the traditional two-parent family as being the best situation for nurturing young children may offend some, but it grants credibility to successful parents in nontraditional systems. Her research-based conclusions may not set well with those who tend to hold conservative, traditional beliefs. But her questioning of the stereotype provides a necessary parry to the foil presented by Whitehead's writings supporting the conservative "family values" position touted by many in the political and religious arenas.

Turning 30 has become the new "threshold age of adulthood," said Jeffrey Arnett, a professor at the University of Maryland and the author of "Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road From the Late Teens Through the Twenties," to be published next year by Oxford University Press. "Instead of social transitions like marriage and parenthood," he said, "people now define themselves as adults by individual markers. Adulthood is about accepting responsibility, making individual decisions and becoming financially independent."

From today�s Boston Globe editorial titled �For Gay Marriage�: �It is worth repeating that these are civil marriages. No one is asking any religious organization to sanctify, or even recognize, these unions.�

Actually that�s not quite true. To my knowledge, there are not currently legal challenges asking religious organizations to recognize same sex marriages. But several mainline Protestant denominations are deeply divided over the issue, and some clergy in some denominations were blessing same sex unions years before any state was asked to do so. And, just as gay couples married in one state (Massachusetts or New Jersey, perhaps?) will go to other states seeking recognition of their marriages, so also will they expect everyone else � their workplace, their child�s school, and their church � to recognize their legal marriage. If you're married, you expect anybody, anywhere to recognize you as such.