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Marriage equality as it happened
By adamg on Fri, 05/16/2014 - 10:15am
Live reporting from Cambridge City Hall at midnight on May 17, 2004 as the first same-sex couples applied for marriage licenses following the pioneering Goodridge decision.
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Still waiting for the sky to
Still waiting for the sky to turn black, demons to descend, and Armageddon to be upon us as was predicted by foes
Maybe God's just busy?
Seriously. Cambridge City Hall has that nice tall tower just waiting to be struck by lightning, and yet...no smiting. Not even a heavy windstorm to knock out some windows.
The Mandate of Heaven
If God expresses His opinion on human affairs through prodigies and wonders, then we know what He thinks of marriage equality: 2004 was the year the Sox finally won the World Series. If that wasn't miracle enough to know His feelings, I don't know what to tell you.
God's a Cubs fan.
He never gives up hope.
Marraige Equality in Massachusetts
Right on. Every now and then Massachusetts does something right that makes me really proud to have been born here happy to live here. Being 1st in the USA to get it right on the marraige equality thing was one of those times.
How many marriages in the 10 years?
and, um, how many divorces (I know a few)? For both hetero and homo couples in Mass.
Who cares?
Who cares?
Who cares its 10 years?
Who cares its 10 years? Or 9.736 years or whatever? Somebody is making a thing out of 10 years, so why not round out the media blitz with more facts?
What would you look to glean
What would you look to glean from said facts?
Many things
Ever hear the term "Big Data"? Lots of interesting things can be gleaned from data sources, even marketing to gay couples, lawyer services for gay couples etc.. A big jump 10 years ago gives us and other states an idea of the pent up demand and clerk staffing needs. Marriage and divorce rates/longevity for different demographics is also important for social understanding.
"Big Data" has exactly
"Big Data" has exactly nothing to do with the two numbers you requested.
Here's one basic fact
MA has one of the lowest, if not the lowest, divorce rates in the country, and has been in that low divorce club since before 5/17/04.
I don't think they keep stats on them separately, however, because marriage is marriage is marriage. There is no longer any distinction in the law.
There is also JFGI if you really want to know, Mark. This turned up immediately upon searching: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2011/07/06/divorce-rates-lower-in-st...
Why not included in 10 yr. anniversary media blitz?
From the above article, referring to NY state:
"There are 100 [different-sex] married couples for every 1 [same-sex] couple," Gates told U.S. News in an E-mail. "Even if all of the [same-sex] couples marry, at only 1 percent of married couples, there are just not enough [same-sex] couples to really alter broad statistics about marriage and divorce."
So, that's useful data. 'Phobes don't need to fear an avalanche of gay marriages threatening straight ones or a vast drain on benefits from same sex spouses being allowed to have them.
Again, what would be the point?
Why would anybody feel that gay marriages threaten straight ones, even if it were 50% of marriages in the first place?
You tell me
I don't understand why people fear gay marriage.
As a stat guy, this annoys me
Not your opinion, but the fact the statistic is not kept.
In Iowa (second state to have gay marriage) the statistic is kept.
The U.S. keeps statistics on births to unwed mothers and publishes reports on the data, as the states (who provide the data) also do. Same with divorce.
In the end of the day, if someone wants to make the case that gay marriage is good or bad or whatever and wants to show that the numbers are low or high or whatever, why shouldn't the data be out there?
My gut is that gutlessness on the part of the DPH (the defendants in the landmark case) lead to the data being supressed. Yet data is amoral. It's what leads up to the data and what comes from the data that could be the issue.
I know that social sciences are not real sciences, but were data for hard science kept from view, loud voices would be heard.
How many wedding cakes have
How many wedding cakes have been ordered? How many pounds of rice were thrown? How many party buses were used for bachelor(ette) parties? The list goes on...and none of it matters.
When my little girls play wedding...
They both dress up as brides and no one has to pretend to be the groom like when I was a kid playing with my sister. I love that my kids are growing up in an age where they have learned that you marry who you love. Not who you love only if they happen to be the opposite sex of you.
Poor Ellen
Trapped into wearing a tux. She does it well and better than Jane Lynch.
playing wedding?
Interesting, I never did that growing up and never knew any girl that did. My parents really didn't place that expectation in my consciousness. The concept of marriage was "mum and dad", really. But I guess kids are influenced more with TV programs like the Bachelor on in their homes.
Ever hear of a flower girl?
They were flower girls in my sisters wedding. They've been playing it ever since. And no, my 4 and 6 year old don't watch The Bachelor and neither do I.
Few people know the real backstory on this
Susan, a friend and classmate of mine, agonized very much over whether she even wanted to get married. It was a really tough sell, as she and Marcia had all their legal stuff in place after years of being together and raising their son.
Most of the grad students ate lunch together in the department's main conference room, and all that winter and spring we would all discuss it with Susan, who would initiate some pretty intense conversations about it - what do you want, do you know what this means, what will happen next, etc. This was not something that she took lightly. This was a very public act surrounding what had to that time been a very private commitment.
Nobody expected that it would be a big party and lovefest that night in Cambridge. Peter, in particular (their elite hockey playing son), feared violence against his mothers and you can see in the pictures how he stands there, strong and very physically present, watching and guarding like a Pyrenees herd dog.
I salute her courage, and Marcia's courage, and Peter's courage in joining arms and stepping into the spotlight. This was not trivial. I also salute another classmate of Susan and I, Cora Roelofs, who married her wife two weeks later on the eve of their son's birth, and they thus became the first married gay couple to share full parenting rights from birth. All of us fellow graduate students were and are so damn proud of all of them all!
Later that afternoon, I did a search on their names, and printed out a 15-page google news search as a keepsake.
Susan and Marcia just last week ...
The commercial they were in
The commercial they were in with Peter as a hockey player at Merrimack remains very simple and powerful.