Would redefining marriage to include same-s*x coupling affect mating couples' decisions to tie the knot?

Question

Judges in Massachusetts and California have overruled the legislatures and people to impose their personal preference that marriage be any permanent relationship (including same-s*x coupling) rather than a permanent mating relationship of one man and one woman.

Of course, men and women will continue to mate, and they have the options of hooking up and cohabitation competing with marriage. Given the newly degraded status of marriage as on par with same-s*x coupling, will this affect the decision of mating couples about whether or not to establish the permanent mating relationship of marriage?

Answer 1

I think you're assuming a number of things that are not in evidence, and ignoring some trends which have been around for a number of decades.

First, you suggest that marriage will be degraded by allowing same s*x partners the same rights as opposite s*x partners.  That's simply your opinion.  There's nothing whatsoever to suggest that expanding the definitions of marriage to include same-s*x relationships is "degrading" marriage at all.  

Secondly, you mention the options of cohabitation or "hooking up" as competing with marriage.  Ever hear of common law marriage?  It's been around since before this country, and is simply long-term cohabitation, which became, de jure, marriage.  Moreover, the so-called competition of these life ways with marriage isn't really competition.  It's apples and oranges.  Marriage grants legal, financial and informational advantages that hooking up does not, and can not.  

I'm married, and have been for 20 years.  I can't see how the extension of those legal and financial rights to same s*x couples is in any way effecting my marriage, or the potential of marriage for my children, or their children.  The fact that married same-s*x couples will be better able to adopt children or have children through surrogacy, and will have the exact same rights as those of heterosexual couples does not in any sense detract from marriage.  In fact, the idea that committed, loving couples who wish to provide each other with legal and financial protection and wish to raise a family should and may marry will, perhaps, enhance the esteeem that marriage is held in.  Marriage has long been divorced from religion in this country, and same s*x marriage may just revitalize the institution as a secular, legal and financial committment of great importance and greater permanence.

If you want to talk about the degrading of marriage, let's look at the heterosexual divorce and cheating rates, and let's look at celebrity marriages.