To wed or not to wed? That is the question that Shakespeare Santa Cruz will pose this summer. The troupe has announced three plays to be staged in repertory from July 21 through Aug. 29 on the University of California-Santa Cruz campus. From Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew'' and John Fletcher's sequel to it, "The Tamer Tamed,'' to Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,'' the institution of marriage will be examined in all its perplexity. "Today, the definition of marriage is being debated on the front page of every newspaper,'' notes SSC artistic director Paul Whitworth, who is returning after a sabbatical. "Is it a contract to unite property? A "marriage of true minds"? A license for sex? A context for procreation? A sacrament? Liberty or lifelong bondage?''

Economist Justin Wolfers of Stanford University, in a study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), found that when California passed a no-fault divorce law in 1970, the divorce rate jumped, then fell back to its old level - and then fell some more. That was also the pattern in other states that loosened their laws. Over time, he estimates, the chance that a first marriage would break up rose by less than 1 percent.

The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, who has stopped short of endorsing gay marriage in the past, yesterday said he opposed a proposed state constitutional amendment that would outlaw gay marriage and create civil unions. "We must measure human rights by one yardstick: Marry who you want to. And leave when you're ready," he said at a meeting with Globe reporters and editors.

Young teenagers are increasingly being "coerced" into having sex with their partners, a sexual health conference has heard. Dr Donna Chung, a senior lecturer from the University of SA's School of Social Work and Social Policy, told the Australian Sexual Health Conference yesterday sexual coercion was a "fairly common" occurrence for teenage girls aged 15 to 18 years.

Senate leaders of both parties said that the welfare bill was not necessarily dead and that they would seek an agreement to allow votes on a specified number of Democratic amendments and on final passage of the bill itself. But Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, said he saw little chance for such an agreement in an election year. "This is now a nonfunctioning institution," he said of the Senate, where he has served more than 41 years. Soon after the roll call ended, Mr. Kennedy said: "The White House and the Republican leadership refuse to permit the Senate to vote on basic issues like the minimum wage, overtime pay and unemployment insurance. But we are strongly committed to bringing those issues back time and time and time again." Republicans said they had offered votes on those issues, but in return, they said, they wanted to set a time for final votes on the welfare and tax bills.

Republicans needed 60 votes to prevent Democrats from including in the bill election-year votes on raising the minimum wage and other economic issues but fell nine votes short in a 51-47 Senate roll call. It was the second time in two weeks they lost an attempt in the closely divided Senate to sidestep Democrats who want to call attention to issues of workers' wages and benefits. Last week, Republicans pulled a corporate tax bill after they lost a similar fight to limit debate and prevent a vote on blocking new rules that would remove federal guarantees of time-and-a-half pay for many white-collar workers. The welfare legislation also could be set aside, even though lawmakers in both parties agree it would pass the Senate easily if it could reach a final vote. Democrats vowed not to let that final vote happen if they also couldn't get a vote their measure to increase the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7 over the next two years.

MARRIAGE PROMOTION PUTS POLITICS OVER POLICY: While opposing a minimum wage increase and childcare, President Bush is pushing hard to provide "up to $1.5 billion over the five-year period for programs to promote marriage" as part of the welfare reauthorization bill. The programs, which the Administration says are geared towards low-income partners, would "help couples develop interpersonal skills that sustain 'healthy marriages.'" While there is evidence that functional marriages are beneficial for children, the programs championed by Bush "could discriminate against single women, pressure them into abusive marriages, and convey that they should find a husband rather than seek self-sufficiency." While the benefit for low-income Americans – and marriage in general – is uncertain, an advisor to Bush was confident that the proposal was "a way for the president to address the concerns of conservatives and to solidify his conservative base." Meanwhile, the Bush administration is unwilling to promote stable families for gay couples – many of whom are raising children – and is instead proposing a constitutional amendment to ban states from recognizing same-sex unions.

The Goodridges were Julie Wendich and Hillary Smith when they met in 1985 at a Harvard lecture. As their relationship progressed and they contemplated buying a home and having a child together, legal obstacles materialized.

They drew up living wills, took as their surname the maiden name of Hillary's grandmother, and penned legal documents spelling out their relationship.

After Julie gave birth to Annie, Hillary was barred from seeing them in the hospital because she was legally attached to neither. She wheedled her way to their bedsides, at one point saying she was Julie's sister, at another resorting to tearful pleas.

"At the time, it certainly didn't occur to me that 'Gosh, if I was married, this wouldn't have happened,'" Hillary said.
Then, one day when Annie was 5, the little girl heard the Beatles song "All You Need is Love" and began listing people she knew who loved one another.

Julie and Hillary were not among them.

"What about Ma and Mommy?" Hillary asked.

"You two don't love each other," Annie said, adding: "If you loved each other, you'd be married."

Contrary to popular belief, highly educated women are now more likely to marry than they were in 1980, says an economist at the University of Washington.

I read that piece about the "child-free" movement ...The movement sounds like a bunch of nonsense! If these folks plan to be around in 20 years, they should remember that babies born today will be taxpaying adult citizens within their own lifetimes. Helping parents spend more time with their kids in a lower-stress environment ensures that their kids grow up to be good neighbors, co-workers and caregivers. Supporting parents and children is not only the right thing to do, it's also an act of enlightened self-interest.

...more professional women are opting out of the rat race, at least temporarily. For the first time, the percentage of workplace participation by married mothers with children less than a year old fell from 59 percent in 1997 to 53 percent in 2000 -- a significant change, even though it impacts only a small group, experts say.

...I hope we don't have to worry that this movement will catch on. After all, without kids eventually there also wouldn't be any adults...

(Boston, Massachusetts) A Massachusetts judge has granted the dissolution of a [Vermont] civil union citing the state's landmark ruling on same-sex marriage. ...

The Upside Down Divorce Game

Teach Children the Skills They Need to Cope with Divorce

Most children don't want to talk about divorce, but this game makes talking easy. As they go around the colorful board, they flip their playing pieces upside down. To turn right side up, they have to learn new coping and communication skills. Children are also challenged to think of creative ways to solve the problems that typically come with divorce and to express positive feelings about themselves and their future.

For 2-4 players Ages 6-12

Today a provocative new report is released that makes the connection: Men and Women Apart: The Decline of Partnering in Australia, by Bob Birrell, Virginia Rapson and Clare Hourigan, from the centre for population and urban research at Monash University. The Birrell report shows Australia is experiencing a sharp decline in levels of partnering, and particularly marriage, during the peak childbearing years. In 1986, 72 per cent of 30 to 34-year-old women were married, compared with 55 per cent in 2001. Those young women who do marry show no hesitation in starting their families - since 1986 there has been no drop in the proportion (85 per cent) of married women aged 35 to 39 who have at least one child. Although more women are now having children on their own or in de facto relationships, birthrates are far lower for these unmarried women.

So it's hazardous partnering patterns that are screwing up our birthrates, say the researchers. Increasing numbers of women waste precious child-rearing years in de facto relationships and end up partnerless as their fertility declines. The number of partnerless women in their 30s nearly doubled between 1986 and 2001, according to Birrell's data. But the big surprise is that more educated women are no longer more likely to miss out on partners. Remember all those headlines back in the 1980s about university-educated women ending up on the shelf? Well, it was true then that more women with degrees were on their own in their 30s, but by 2001 it was the less educated women who were more likely not to have a mate.