Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"Marriage is under threat, all right. The threat, however, comes not from gay couples who want to get married but from straight couples who either do not get married or do not stay married. A third of American children are born to unmarried parents. The divorce rate has doubled since 1960, and the marriage rate fell 40 percent from 1970 to 2000. Cohabitation rose 72 percent in the 1990s. Twenty-eight percent of young couples aged 18-29 are unmarried. 'The future of marriage may depend,' as an analysis of that last figure by the Gallup Organization remarks, 'on whether young people simply delay marriage or sidestep it altogether.' Society generally and children especially have an interest in encouraging these couples to get and stay married.

"One way to do that is to signal, legally and culturally, that marriage is not just one of many interchangeable 'lifestyles,' but the gold standard for committed relationships. For generations, both law and culture signaled that marriage is the ultimate commitment, uniquely binding and uniquely honored; that everyone could and should aspire to marry; and that marriage is especially important for couples with children. Same-sex marriage may be the first opportunity the country has had in decades to climb back up the slippery slope and say, quite dramatically, that marriage--not co-habitation, not partnership, not civil union, but marriage--is society's first choice."

-- Jonathan Rauch (of the Brookings Institution), "Family's Value" (requires login; try bugmenot.com), New Republic, 2005-05-25 (quote appears on secong page of article, link is to first page)