Opinion:     “Same-sex marriage will actually increase divorce.

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Fact:  As there’s no evidence presented here to support this argument, no evidence should be needed to counter it. But, should anyone be interested in evidence, there is a large and conclusive data set in place. UNC Law Professor Holning Lau has compiled 10 years of marriage and divorce data from the United States: none of the five states with the lowest divorce rates has a marriage amendment, and states with the highest divorce rates in the country do have marriage amendments. Connecticut, in the years after legalizing same-sex marriage, saw a sharp drop in divorces. Beyond the States, Belgium, with a 20 year history of same-sex marriage, has shown no evidence that these marriages have increased divorce rates.

How much lack of evidence is enough?

In the absence of hard numbers, perhaps some recently divorced couples would like to come forward and offer anecdotal evidence from their own experiences, sharing with North Carolina their story of a happy marriage ruined by the union of two loving women. These folks could go on to explain why vast numbers of couples choosing not to be married had no effect on their marriage, but new groups of people requesting to be married had devastating effects. And this kind of destruction may not be limited by state borders. Perhaps gay marriages in Massachusetts can cross state lines to damage marriages in other states.

The fact is, again, that the strength or weakness of any marriage is the responsibility of the two people involved in it - and no one else. A marriage which can be “depreciated” by any outside force is, by definition, not “appreciated” enough from within.

Even if this argument were more supported by data than the argument that same-sex marriage will increase tornadoes, government laws concerning divorce are dealt with entirely separately than laws concerning marriage. It would be counterproductive for government to deny the marriage of some for fear others may divorce.

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http://www.law.unc.edu/documents/faculty/marriageamendment/lauamendmentsprotectmarriage.pdf

www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvss/marriage_rates_90_95_99-09.pdf www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvss/divorce_rates_90_95_99-09.pdf.




















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