GAY MARRIAGE IN NORWAY: Stanley Kurtz

Marriage in Scandinavia is in serious decline. A majority of children in Sweden and Norway now are born out of wedlock. In some of the more socially liberal districts, marriage has virtually ceased to exist. ...

In the socially liberal Norwegian county of Nordland, rainbow flags fly on churches as signs that same-sex registered partnerships are fully accepted and that clergy who preach against homosexual behavior are banned. In Nordland, the out-of-wedlock birthrate in 2002 was 67.29 percent markedly higher than the rate for Norway as a whole.

The out-of-wedlock birthrate for first-born children in Nordland county in 2002 was 82.27 percent. More significantly, the out-of-wedlock birthrate for second-and-above born children in Nordland county in 2002 was 58.61 percent.

In the early '90s, when the debate on same-sex partnerships began, most Nordlanders already bore their first child out of wedlock. Yet in 1990, 60.26 percent of Nordland's parents still married before the birth of the second child. By 2002, the situation had reversed. Just less than 60 percent of Nordlanders now bear even second-and-above born children out of wedlock.

That nearly 20-point shift signals that marriage itself now is a rarity in Nordland county. What began as a practice of experimenting with the relationship has turned into a general repudiation of marriage itself.

In the parts of Norway where de facto gay marriage finds its highest degree of acceptance, marriage itself has virtually ceased to exist. This fact ought to give pause.

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posted by Eve at 5:06 PM VOTE

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