Wednesday, August 10, 2011

States With Gay Marriage Have Lowest Divorce Rates

Self-enriching cow Maggie Gallagher and the wide-assed bigots like Archbishop Dolan in New York in Catholic Church bishoprics around the country whine incessantly about "protecting" marriage from the threat of same sex marriage. Yet a new report shows that divorce is the least prevalent in states where gay marriage is legal and the highest - yes, you guessed it - in the Bible belt and ultra conservative states. It's one more example of the deliberate lies and untruths put out by the anti-gay folks whose real agenda is to punish LGBT citizens for not conforming to Christianist religious beliefs. They can whine and blather all they want, but it comes down to seeking to force others to live by the beliefs of the Christofascists. Here are highlights from Edge of the Net:

One would think that the liberal Northeastern states, which include five of the six where marriage equality is legal (including, that is, the federal District of Columbia), would have the highest rate of divorce because they are perceived as more freewheeling. In addition, the main argument against gay marriage has been that it undermines the state of marriage. So it would follow that, in states that have embraced gay marriages, heterosexual marriages are in a perilous state of collapse. Except that the opposite appears to be true.

At first glance, it looks counterintuitive -- at least, if you pay attention to the rhetoric of religious conservatives, who frown on divorce because they believe heterosexuals shouldn’t engage in premarital sex and once married, should remain so for the rest of their lives.

Here’s the really surprising part: It’s the Bible belt, the swathe of religious ultra-conservatives that swings from West Virginia down through Dixie that has by far the highest proportion of divorce rates among the general population.

Massachusetts, the first state to legalize same-sex marriage, for years has had the lowest number of divorces in the nation. In 2009, there were only 1.8 divorces per 1,000 population. Marriages also are legal in Washington, D.C., which closely trails Massachusetts with 2.1 divorces per 1,000 residents.

New York, the largest and most recent state to legalize marriage equality, has a divorce rate of 2.5 per 1,000. That ties the rate in Iowa, the sole non-Northeastern state to allow same-sex marriages. The other states with marriage equality also all have low divorce rates compared to the national median: Connecticut, New Hampshire and Vermont.

The same things that produce higher acceptance of diversity are the things that tend to lower divorce rates," she explained. "This is one of the ironies. People who are higher educated and who have experience outside marriage because they have delayed getting married and have a higher degree of economic security and sophistication tend to be more acceptable of same-sex marriage and have lower divorce rates."

College graduates, of whom there are many more in the low-divorce states, have higher incomes, which tend to make marriages last. "Those in the South have much lower income and education levels," Coontz reported.

That's right. The very ignorance and close mindedness preached by the Catholic bishops, the leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention and other anti-gay denominations is what really helps to increase divorce rates. Not Adam and Steven being civilly married and being treated as a lawful couple. So the next time you hear Maggie Gallagher pontificating, know that she's lying. Worse yet, I suspect she knows that she is she loves enriching herself more than telling the truth.

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