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Maddow: Gay Marriage Equals DOMA


Rachel Maddow Mass. Marriage (Grab) | Advocate.com

Rachel Maddow reported new government data on Thursday that suggests the legalization of same-sex marriage may lessen divorce rates. The provisional statistics indicate that divorce rates have fallen in Massachusetts since marriage equality became law in 2004, giving the state the lowest divorce rate in the nation.

“Despite all the dire warnings, the sky did not fall down the day a man was allowed to marry a man and a woman was allowed to marry a woman in the Bay State,” said Maddow, who shares a home in Massachusetts with her partner, Susan Mikula. The couple is not married.

According to the statistics Maddow cites in the segment below, the rate of divorce in Massachusetts fell from 2.2 per thousand to 2.0 per thousand between 2004 and 2008. The remarkable pre–World War II levels of divorce were reached after same-sex marriage was legalized.

”Awkwardly, it turns out gay marriage is a defense of marriage act,” said Maddow.

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Reader Comments
  • Name: BT
    Date posted: 9/8/2009 2:51:45 PM
    Hometown: Orlando

    Comment:

    Of course her point had some satire involved. The fact of the matter is, that regardless of the divorce rates, gay civil marriage has no statistically significant effect on hetero marriage. That said, since gays are often trend setters, and seeing us fight so hard for a right that the hetero world takes for granted, maybe heteros might see this stuggle and think, marriage is really pretty special and not something to be thrown away so easily. (i.e. no fault divorce). Our fight may remind some straight folks not to take their right for granted.

  • Name: BT
    Date posted: 9/8/2009 2:51:14 PM
    Hometown: Orlando

    Comment:

    Of course her point had some satire involved. The fact of the matter is, that regardless of the divorce rates, gay civil marriage has no statistically significant effect on hetero marriage. That said, since gays are often trend setters, and seeing us fight so hard for a right that the hetero world takes for granted, maybe heteros might see this stuggle and think, marriage is really pretty special and not something to be thrown away so easily. (i.e. no fault divorce). Our fight may remind some straight folks not to take their right for granted.

  • Name: JustAReader
    Date posted: 9/8/2009 12:59:14 AM
    Hometown: Falls Church, VA

    Comment:

    Are you all missing one other fact? That the secular people in Massachusetts are not getting married anymore, leaving marriage largely to religious people who have some grounding to their lives that can cut down on divorce. The secular people are cohabitating without marriage, thus keeping the rate of actual divorce in MA low.

  • Name: JustAReader
    Date posted: 9/8/2009 12:46:23 AM
    Hometown: Falls Church, VA

    Comment:

    Are you all missing one other fact? That the secular people in Massachusetts are not getting married anymore, leaving marriage largely to religious people who have some grounding to their lives that can cut down on divorce. The secular people are cohabitating without marriage, thus keeping the rate of actual divorce in MA low.

  • Name: Agreed.
    Date posted: 9/7/2009 12:06:44 AM
    Hometown: Hampton

    Comment:

    Agreed. Whether you agree with her position or not has nothing to do with the blatant error with these statistics. Gay marriages have little/nothing to do with divorce rates in MA. Sorry.

  • Name: The Truth
    Date posted: 9/6/2009 12:42:03 AM
    Hometown: Provincetown, MA

    Comment:

    You might think Rachel Maddow would understand causal relationships. Nothing in this report shows that she does.

  • Name: Emily
    Date posted: 9/6/2009 12:04:12 AM
    Hometown: San Francisco

    Comment:

    Richard, you're obviously not a lesbian. Rachel Maddow is hot BECAUSE of her hair and her drab colors. We can't all be fags, honey. Maybe you have to be a dyke to appreciate one. :)

  • Name: Scott
    Date posted: 9/5/2009 7:26:57 PM
    Hometown: Portland

    Comment:

    Massachusetts is definatly a foreward thinking state, it's good to know that the sky did not fall on them and that equality has been a benefit to the state in general. I hope that people can learn from this realize that people who want to marry their same sex partners are of no threat to traditional opposite sex marriage. I hope my state will join mass someday soon!

  • Name: Dan
    Date posted: 9/4/2009 11:31:07 PM
    Hometown: Austin, Texas

    Comment:

    Laurent, I would normally agree with you that a drop of 0.02% is negligible or "not even a blip in the statistics," but in this case, it's a drop from 0.22% to 0.20%. In other words, it's almost a tenth lower than the original 2004 percent. That's a substantial decline. A change over time should be understood in the context of the original number. If the decline were from, say, 20.02% to 20.00%, then yes, it would be negligible. I agree that the Canadian and Dutch statistics are even more impressive than the MA statistics. Taken together, I think we're seeing an accumulation of evidence that same-sex marriages are stable and pose no threat to opposite-sex marriages; if anything, they seem to benefit opposite-sex marriages.

  • Name: Jack
    Date posted: 9/4/2009 10:12:45 PM
    Hometown: MA

    Comment:

    Okay, great segment, but it's important to clarify her statistics. She means 2.2 divorces per thousand residents, not per thousand marriages.



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