IN MASSACHUSETTS THE SKY HASN'T FALLEN AND STRAIGHT MARRIAGES HAVEN'T BEEN HARMED

5 years ago, when the Massachusetts Supreme Court handed down its landmark decision allowing same-sex couples to wed, opponents warned that traditional, heterosexual marriage would be severely harmed, churches would be forced to perform gay weddings, homosexuality would be taught in schools forever damaging the fragile psyches of vulnerable young children and former governor Mitt Romney predicted that the state would become the "Las Vegas of same-sex marriage."

Well, no church has been forced to perform gay weddings unless they chose to do so and children were not forced to learn about homosexuality in school unless their parents agreed, in writing, to allow them to attend any class that examined or even just discussed the subject.

Also, to Mitt Romney's embarrassment, Massachusetts has not become the "Las Vegas of same-sex marriage." In fact, according to the Boston Globe, the gay marriage rates have leveled off at about 1,500 a year or about 4 percent of all state marriages in 2006 and 2007. And, the state's divorce rate, including both gay and straight marriages, has remained the same and is still the lowest in the country.

Clearly, the opponents of gay marriage outright lied about everything they said. None of their dire warnings or predictions happened and gay marriage has become very matter-of-fact. Virtually no one scowls at hand-holding couples anymore and children from both gay and straight families play together, go to school together and attend events and functions together. In truth, gay families have become just another part of the communities they live in.

Unfortunately, the hate-mongers who, in fact, are basically the same people who were the driving forces behind the recent anti-gay measures in California, Arizona, Florida and Arkansas, learned important lessons from Massachusetts. The only way to win was for them to spend tens of millions of dollars and simply overwhelm the general electorate by flooding the airwaves with false and misleading advertising, putting thousands of church-instructed volunteers on the streets marching from door to door and encouraging minority community clergy to preach their brand of homophobia from their pulpits as well.

Although Massachusetts wasn't deluged with quite that kind of a massive undertaking, the biggest difference between the people of that state and the other four is that the majority didn't believe the homophobic, apocalyptic rantings. Most of them simply knew better.

That's why a concerted effort of not only exposing the lies of these frauds but also reaching out and educating the uninformed is so important. I'll have more on this in my posting tomorrow.