NOM’s at it again. National Organization for Marriage continues to push a push a false, ridiculous message that their cause of stopping gays from getting married is in some way linked to an epidemic of single-parent homes. Tweeting this just minutes ago:

#USA #Today: children need mother and father to thrive; out-of-wedlock births are out of control. #NO4M #Marriage #TCOT

Turns out a new study has some interesting empirical data for these culture warriors. Seems the problem isn’t the gays. It’s the Christians, from the deep south.

Cross-Posted at Daily Kos, please rec if you can.
The Daily Texan report Conservative Christians divorce more, study says

Divorce is more common among conservative Christians and young people, according to a recent study.

University of Iowa sociology professor Jennifer Glass presented her study on skyrocketing divorce rates in regions highly populated with conservative Christians to an overflowing crowd in Burdine Hall on Friday.

“Politically and religiously conservative states, especially in the Deep South, exhibit higher divorce rates than politically and religiously liberal states in the Northeast and Midwest,” Glass wrote in her study.

National Organization for Marriage has been been pushing this false meme since forever, from the amicus brief filed they (pdf)

Single parenthood began its rapid spread during the 1960s, when elite attitudes toward sex, marriage, divorce, and parenthood were undergoing a dramatic change. . . . In the space of a decade we moved from thinking that society ought to discourage extramarital sex, and especially out-of-wedlock births, to thinking that such efforts were an unwarranted infringement on personal liberty.

James Dobson of the Family Research Council warned us in 2004:

The legalization of homosexual marriage will quickly destroy the traditional family.

We’ve already seen evidence from the Scandinavian countries that de-facto homosexual marriage destroys the real Mc Coy. These two entities cannot coexist because they represent opposite ends of the universe.

Meanwhile, in the known universe, turns out same-sex marriage and opposite-sex marriage co-exist very nicely. Wall Street Journal reported statistic compiled by the US Census shows the state that first started marrying gays in 2006, Massachusetts, continues enjoys the lowest divorce rate in the country (and it’s going down). In fact, other marriage equality states like Connecticut, Iowa, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Washington, D.C. all fare quite low.

Meanwhile the 31 states that have passed gay marriage bans, Kentucky, Tennessee, Nevada, Arkansas, West Virginia are in the highest bracket. It seems your work to “save marriage” is actually, counter-productive.

Just stop with the lying Maggie. Stopping gays from getting married with have no effect on the divorce rate of heterosexuals or the number of children being raised in single-parent homes. The empirical data suggests quite the opposite, in fact.

If you’re interested in slowing the trend of single-parent homes, maybe turn your money, legislative meddling and busy-body activity to Southern states with lots of Fundamentalist Christians?
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