ACADEMICS: STRAIGHTS HAVE ALREADY "OVERTHROWN" MARRIAGE: From the New York Blade

[The only good marriage is a gay marriage. --Eve]

In a newly released collection of academic papers, sociologists, psychologists and historians argue that the institution of marriage has changed dramatically during the past century and that legalized same-sex marriage would have little or no impact on the viability of marriage in the future.

"In my view, marriage as we have known it for 5,000 years has already been overthrown," said history professor Stephanie Coontz, who is writing a book on the history of marriage. ...

Coontz’s paper was among several dozen academic papers and commentaries published in the November 2004 edition of the Journal of Marriage & Family, a 65-year-old, peer reviewed publication that specializes in examining trends in marriage and family issues in the U.S., Canada and Europe.

The journal is an arm of the National Council on Family Relations, which holds an annual conference where university researchers and other academicians present papers on family issues. The November edition of the journal, which was released this month, is a compilation of papers and follow-up analyses from the group's 65th annual conference in 2003, entitled, "What is the Future of Marriage?"

Several of the papers cite statistics from the U.S. government and the governments of Canada and European countries that suggest the institution of marriage is in decline.

A steep rise in the divorce rates beginning in the second half of the 20th century has led to the current state where about half of all U.S. marriages end in divorce, statistics show. The growth of cohabitation among heterosexual couples also rose dramatically in the 1970s and 1980s, the papers point out, with large numbers of opposite-sex couples deciding against marriage.

Today, one out of three births in the United States occur outside of marriage, several of the papers note. In Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Iceland, the percentage of children born to unwed parents is between 45 percent and 65 percent, according to figures presented in the papers. ...

"What's happened is that heterosexuals have changed marriage," Cherlin said in a phone interview with the Blade.

"They've made marriage less about having children and more about intimacy and companionship," he said. "And once that change is made, there is not much reason to limit marriage to opposite-sex people, opposite-sex couples."

Added Cherlin, "I don't think the legalization of gay marriage will weaken heterosexual marriage. In some sense it reinforces the importance of the institution of marriage," he said. "Here we have a group of Americans, gay men and lesbians, who are proclaiming that marriage is very important to them and they want to have that symbolic status," he said. "So in a way, gay and lesbian activists, in urging same-sex marriage, are saying that marriage is important, that it is still here, that it still means something and that anyone in an intimate partnership ought to be able to claim it."

As for heterosexuals, Cherlin concludes in his paper that, "Although the practical importance of marriage has declined, its symbolic significance has remained high and may even have increased. It has become a marker of prestige and personal achievement" and will likely remain an important part of society, despite the prominence of gay marriage.

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posted by Eve at 5:41 PM VOTE

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