Can Gay Marriage Promote Values?

Newsweek:  This Sunday, May 17, is the five year anniversary of the first gay marriage license issued in Massachusetts, the first state in the nation to allow same sex partners to wed. Since then, over 10,000 gay and lesbian couples have taken marriage vows. (The first gay couple married in Massachusetts - Susan Shepard and Marcia Hams - will celebrate their five year anniversary on Sunday too.)  Although Massachusetts has a reputation for liberalism, the path to gay marriage was a tough one, which ended in the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. In November 2003, when the court ruled to allow gay marriage, only 50 members of the state's 200-strong legislature supported the move, and barely a majority of voters were in favor. But today, a poll sponsored by Hattaway Communications and grassroots advocacy group Marriage Equality Works shows that a decent majority Massachusetts residents now support it.   Lake Research Partners, who conducted the survey, asked 600 Massachusetts residents whether they would vote for or against a state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Fully 62% of respondents said they would oppose such an amendment, up from 52% in a similar 2005 survey. Interestingly, the poll found that many residents supported marriage equality because it promoted traditional values like commitment and responsibility. This finding will surely come as a surprise to anti-gay marriage advocates who argue that it undermines the foundations of the family.

To read more, Click Here.

Comments

There are no comments for this entry.


Please enter the word you see in the image below:


More News