In case you live under a rock and haven't seen the news lately, a federal appeals court overturned California Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage, saying it violated constitutional rights to equal protection and due process (aka the 14th Amendment).
Here's the NY Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/08/us/marriage-ban-violates-constitution-court-rules.html?hp
I'm not gonna get into all that. Like I said, this is not a post about gay marriage. This is about the group that sponsored the bill.
Here's what I am gonna get into: In the article, it talks about ProtectMarriage.com, the support group behind Proposition 8. Their reasoning behind Proposition 8 is that they want to protect the traditional union of marriage. On their website, under the "Why Marriage Matters" section, it says:
Traditional marriage is the foundation of society and has served our state well for centuries. California’s constitutional marriage amendment exists to strengthen society, encourage monogamous and loving marriages and to provide the optimal environment to ensure the well being of children.Ok really? Banning gay marriage will strengthen society and encourage monogamous and loving marriages?
According to the CDC (and ok, I'm not sure why this information is on the CDC, but it's got good info. So does the Census Bureau, but those were pdfs and these are easier to link)...anyway, according to the CDC, there were 2,096,000 people who got married in the United States in 2010. There were also 872,000 divorces and annulments. Some quick fourth grade division and that is about .416...meaning that 41.6% of marriages ended in divorce or annulment that year.
A look at the PDFs from the Census Bureau shows the breakdown by state. In California in 2009, there is an 8.0 divorce rate per 1000 men and a 19.1 marriage rate out of 100 men. So again, the divorce rate is almost half the marriage rate.
Keep in mind, this is 2009, the year after Proposition 8 was enacted.
I don't think gay marriage is ruining marriage.
I think a group that is soo concerned with preserving marriage would have more important things to worry about, but ProtectMarriage is not concerned with preserving marriage. They are trying to legitimize their narrow-minded, conservative, views so they can make a law to force everyone to agree with their beliefs.
According to one of the judges that voted to overturn the ban, "Although the Constitution permits communities to enact most laws they believe to be desirable, it requires that there be at least a legitimate reason for the passage of a law that treats different people differently... Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gay men and lesbians in California."
