Thoughts on Gay Marriage in NY

It should come as no surprise to those of you familiar with my writing that I am not losing any sleep over the passage of gay marriage in the Empire State.

Of course, there are others who are quite distressed by this state of affairs. John Guardiano argues that the institution of marriage is threatened. Amongst other things, he cites Rich Lowry of National Review Online who in turn cites Brad Wilcox of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia claims that intact marriages amongst moderately and highly educated have fallen almost in half (from 73% to nearly 39%.)

Let's assume that Wilcox's numbers are accurate. If the decline of intact marriages has taken place since the 1970s it can hardly be blamed on those who wish to enter a same sex marriage. Activism towards same sex marriage is a development that has taken in this country only since the late 1990s. With only a handful of states having adopted gay marriage, it is impossible to determine at this point whether gay marriage will contribute to the overall decline of intact marriages. If we use Wilcox's timeline as a model then it will take another three or four decades to meaningfully measure the impact of gay marriage on intact marriages.

In the meantime, I maintain that marriage is only as good as the two people who enter into it.