The ridiculousness of "The Defense of Marriage"

The happiest day of my life

It is interesting to note that the rallying cry of most Christianists is that same-sex marriage encapsulates the moral decay that is leading to the demise of the family unit. I will also note here that it seems that the majority of these Christianists, or at least the most virulently anti-gay ones, are from the south and Midwest. That must mean that the folks in the liberal Northeast, where same-sex marriage is legal in all but Maine and Rhode Island (RI has civil unions), must be a hot bed of divorce and declining two spouse families. According to an article in USA Today: "Au Contraire!"

Marriage, Divorce rates higher in the South, lower in the Northeast

Where you live may influence your attitudes and actions toward marriage and divorce more than you think, suggests a federal report out today that gives the clearest picture in 20 years about the evolution of marriage and divorce across the USA

The report, from the U.S. Census, finds distinct regional differences, with states in the Northeast having the lowest marriage rates and lowest divorce rates for both men and women, and states in the South having the highest. New Jersey is among those with the lowest for both sexes; states with high rates for both men and women include Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas.

"This does not mean you should move to the Northeast if you want your marriage to last," says sociologist Andrew Cherlin of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, who has reviewed the data.

In the South, people tend to marry earlier and often have less education, both of which increase divorce risk, he says. Those in the Northeast tend to have more education and marry later. "The lesson here is that a higher level of education leads to more stable families. Sometimes the data surprises people because regions we think of as socially conservative have higher rates of divorce, but that's largely because people have less education and marry younger."

Score another one for the queens!