Opinion:   “Protecting marriage will actually benefit business, because marriage produces a stable, productive, balanced workforce. Without procreation, economic growth is impossible.



Fact:  Anecdotally, marriage does not necessarily produce 'stable, productive, balanced workforces'. The opposite is sometimes true, even independent of the high divorce rate and the incremental imbalances and instabilities obviously associated. Some studies have found there may be correlations between marriage and certain stabilizing societal measures - like increased income - though cause and effect aren't clear. But this does not argue against gay marriage. It argues for more marriage. Indeed, if marriage is correlated to increased incomes and stability, it shouldn’t be a surprise that same-sex couples would also be interested in it.

The procreation postulate here is unrelated to marriage, and is unrelated to the larger topic. Nothing about gay marriage presupposes that 'procreation' will diminish. Men and women can still procreate, independent of their marital status. In terms of making sure the results of this procreation have good, stable homes, though, there may be inconsistency among amendment supporters. Tami Fitzgerald, leader of the NC Values Coalition, responsible for this list of "myths", has written extensively for another anti-marriage group on her reasons for being adamantly against the adoption of children by gay people - referring to gay adoptive couples as showing off "trophy" children.

Microsoft is a very large company, very invested in productive workforces. Microsoft management released a statement recently: “Marriage equality in Washington would put employers here on an equal footing with employers in the six other states that already recognize the committed relationships of same-sex couples.” Business leaders are generally best at letting us know what’s good for business, and it’s up to us to know when it’s appropriate to factor that into our voting agenda.

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http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2012/01/19/marriage-equality-in-washington-state-would-be-good-for-business.aspx

http://christianactionleague.org/news/state-senator’s-same-sex-adoption-allowed-and-

upheld/