Same-Sex Marriage and No-Fault Divorce

Same-sex marriage would not be the first time the standards of traditional marriage have been altered. Back in the 1970’s, marriage was altered when no-fault divorce laws were enacted. With no fault divorce “weddings ceased to be occasions where a man and woman mutually engaged to live their whole lives together... [and] became occasions where a man and woman agreed to call themselves husband and wife until one of them decided otherwise.” Predictably, divorce rates have been higher ever since.

Similarly, same-sex relationships tend to be short-lived. A collection of data by a conservative group indicated that, on average, homosexual males in committed relationships only stay together for between 1.5 and 3 years. A more objective study by German researchers of married same-sex couples in Norway and Sweden, where same-sex marriage is legal, concluded, “The divorce risk in partnerships of men appears 50 percent higher than the corresponding risk in heterosexual marriages, and that the divorce risk in partnerships of women is about the double of that of men.”

However, same-sex relationships, in addition to being short-lived, also tend to be non-monogamous. Many self-described "monogamous" homosexuals reported an average of 3-5 partners in the past year and the average homosexual male has between 100 and 500 different sexual partners in his lifetime. Some same-sex couples claim to be "monogamous", but define the term as being open about sexual relationships with others.

Michael Shernoff, an openly gay psychotherapist of homosexual couples, points out, “There is no one right or wrong way to be a male couple…. Some male couples are sexually exclusive throughout the course of their relationships. Others have explicitly nonexclusive relationships right from the first period of their dating and continue in this way. Still others have formed a committed relationship that is made up of three men living together and sharing their lives and bed.”

Same-sex marriage is certain to damage traditional marriages just as no-fault divorce laws have by changing society’s assumptions about marriage. This result is not acceptable, since traditional marriage is the only institution that provides children with the stability and biological parentage they need. Same-sex marriage should therefore be rejected in the interests of children.