entertainment news uk: Scotland considers gay marriage: is it the ...

Scotland is set to approve legislation making homosexual marriage legal according to a recent announcement by the government. The new law, which is yet to be drafted, will be introduced by the Scottish government to the Parliament later in the year. The intention is that the law will come into effect in 2015. Here is an excerpt from the Scotsman.com:

Legalising gay marriage is the ?right thing to do?, Scotland?s Deputy First Minister has said as she announced that the Scottish Government will introduce legislation to allow same-sex couples to marry.

Nicola Sturgeon said they would bring forward a Bill which could see the first same-sex marriages take place at the start of 2015.

While the Holyrood administration insists that protections will be included in the new law to ensure churches, and individuals within them, do not have to conduct same-sex marriages if they do not agree with them, many religious leaders hit out at the decision.

Interestingly the Deputy First-Minister of Scotland has defended the government?s decision to push for gay marriage by stating, ?it?s the right thing to do?. We ask the question on our blog today, why is it the right thing to do?

Is it the right thing to do because homosexualiy leads to a desire for marriage and family in the same way heterosexuality does?

Scotland is just one of many countries and territories that are currently considering the issue of same-sex marriage, but they are all late-comers to the question when compared to the Dutch. The Netherlands was the first country in the world to legalize gay marriage when it introduced such a law in 2001. Over ten years later in 2012, we have a treasury of statistical data tracking how marriage and homosexuality work in practice based upon the Dutch experience. These statistics shed light on whether homosexuality and marriage are indeed compatible concepts.

The gay lobby in the Netherlands spent around 15 years working to change Dutch social attitudes to homosexual marriage before the right to marry was finally granted. Having put so much effort into it, one might assume that a large portion of the homosexual community would have leapt at the chance to embrace the hard won right. One would think that?.and one would also be wrong. According to a 2011 study, after ten years of same-sex marriage, only about 8% of homosexuals in the Netherlands have engaged nuptials:

?. 14,813 same?sex couples have entered legal marriages in the Netherlands. Dutch survey data suggest that 2.8% of Dutch men and 1.4% of Dutch women are gay or lesbian. The population of the Netherlands is 16,654,979 Which suggests the population of gays and lesbians in the country is approximately 349,755. If every person who contracted a same?sex marriage in the Netherlands was a resident and was gay or lesbian, 29,626 of these 349,755 have chosen to marry. This means about eight percent of gay and lesbian people have chosen to marry.

Thus eight percent have found marriage desirable, meaning that 92 % of gays and lesbians in the Netherlands have not. Compare that to US statistics from 2009, which incidentally recorded the lowest rate of marriage ever amongst the population, but nonetheless, still show that 52% of the population above the age of 18 are in a heterosexual marriage (these statistics do not include those who may have been previously married but no longer are, such as those who are widowed, divorced or are separated).

But what about gays and lesbians in the Netherlands who cohabitate ? meaning they share a living space with someone whom they are in a relationship with. Surely amongst this demographic within a demographic, there is a large, if not a majority percentage who have tied the same-sex knot? Wrong again.

The Dutch statistical evidence shows that among gay and lesbian couples who live together in the Netherlands, less than 20% have actually chosen to marry over the previous ten years, meaning that 80% of those who are in a homosexual relationship of some kind feel no compunction to get married. (Moreover, the interest in same-sex marriage amongst homosexuals has shown a?decline since 2001.)This is the exact opposite to those in a heterosexual relationships in the Netherlands. There it is reported that over 80% choose to commit themselves in marriage.

So to recap, 92% of those practicing homosexuality have not found marriage to be desirable, and neither have 80% of those gays and lesbians who live with a person they have a relationship with. Be that as it may, certainly, of those homosexuals who do want to live together, having children and establishing a family life is a goal ? right? Again, the statistics don?t support that conclusion. According to another Dutch report published in 2004, the number of homosexual couples living with children is miniscule (see pg. 10), even though in Holland homosexual couples were able to adopt children beginning in 1998, and through other means, could have had children since the 1970s:

In about 9 percent of the households of same-sex couples there is at least one child. However, there is a large difference between male and female couples. About 18 percent of the female couples has a child, as opposed to 1 percent of the male couples.

The report goes on to note that many of the children in these relationships were born from previous, heterosexual relationships, thus further undermining the notion that producing and raising a child is a goal commonly shared amongst homosexuals who are living together. Thus 91% of homosexual households did not have children during this study, and that number goes up to 99% if we consider male homosexual households separately.

But, even if homosexuals do not get married at the rate which heterosexuals do, and moreover, do not often seek to start families, isn?t it the case that those that claim steady relationships, commit to their relationships in a manner similar to heterosexual marriage? ?If commitment amongst heterosexuals means monogamy, such is not the case in homosexual relationships. Time and time again, published studies have shown that homosexuals who claim to be in a ?committed? relationship tend not to restrict themselves sexually to a single partner, but rather will engage with multiple partners. Some researchers have considered the prevalent view amongst homosexuals towards such encounters outside of a primary relationship to be best described as ?transactional?. One of the key studies on this issue was conducted in the Netherlands, and as it relates to HIV infections, the report arrived at the following conclusion:

Most new HIV infections among homosexual men in Amsterdam occur within steady relationships [emphasis added].

What these statistics show is that a homosexual relationship does not come with the attendant level of commitment heterosexual relationships aspire to and regularly achieve. Irrespective of the emotional arguments pro-gay advocates marshal in favor of placing homosexual relationships on the same level as heterosexual ones, the evidence indicates that the two must be differentiated. It is like comparing apples and oranges.

So here is the big picture. The Dutch statistics on gay marriage contradict the notion that the traditional marriage commitment is a common goal held by those practicing homosexuality. As is made evident from the Dutch experience, few gays and lesbians see marriage as the outcome of their relationships even when it is made legal, fewer yet see children as a natural outgrowth of their lifestyle, and even where we have an outward profession of commitment by homosexual couples, there is strong evidence to question whether this translates to monogamy ? a characteristic central to heterosexual marriage.?Thus, the argument that legalizing gay marriage is the?right thing to do because homosexuality is just another path to achieving a committed, family-based relationship similar in all respects to heterosexual marriage, is overwhelmingly contradicted by the facts.

In the next installment of this series, we ask the question: Is legalizing gay marriage the right thing to do because it leads to a healthier society?

Eye on Europe

Source: http://worldwatchtoday.org/archives/1512

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Source: http://entertainment-news-uk.blogspot.com/2012/08/scotland-considers-gay-marriage-is-it.html

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