GAY MARRIAGES GOOD FOR STRAIGHT MARRIAGES

Remember all the yelling and screaming by right wing fanatics about how gay marriage is a threat to the institution of heterosexual marriage and threatens the very foundation of our society?

Well, it seems that they were wholly, completely and woefully wrong.

According to the following report by MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, new government statistics released last week show that since same-sex marriages were legalized in Massachusetts in 2004, the divorce rate for heterosexual marriages have fallen steadily. In fact, the divorce rate in Massachusetts is not only the lowest in the nation, it is now at its lowest since pre-World War II days. That's some 69 years ago when the prevailing belief was that families stayed together through thick and thin. They were expected to work out their problems rather than run to a divorce attorney.

This is how Rachel put it...

Next time some fanatic tries to tell you that gay marriage is going to destroy our world, point them to the government's own findings about the effect we've had in Massachusetts. Clearly, the only way to save straight marriages is to legalize gay marriages nationwide. Now that would be a defense of marriage act!

A SECOND DOMA BRIEF FILED BY JUSTICE DEPARTMENT

Last June, Obama's Department Of Justice (DOJ) filed a highly offensive brief in support of the Defense Of Marriage Act (DOMA). The reaction to the language used to justify maintaining DOMA was fierce and widespread.

Wide ranging objections were heard from GLBT community leaders to editorials in the New York Times and Washington Post to radio and television commentaries to countless blogs across the internet. All condemning the brief's language that, in essence, equated gay marriages to incest and pedophilia. It also stated that heterosexual marriage is "the traditional and universally recognized form" and "that awarding federal marriage benefits to gays would infringe on the rights of taxpayers in the 30 states that specifically prohibit same-sex marriages."

Well, according to an article in the Washington Post;

The Obama administration distanced itself Monday from legal arguments it had made earlier this summer, taking pains to remove and renounce language that had outraged advocates in the gay community in a case that centers on the constitutionality of a same-sex marriage law.

In a filing by the Justice Department, administration lawyers made it clear for the first time in court that the president thinks the 13-year-old Defense of Marriage Act, which denies benefits to domestic partners of federal employees and allows states to reject same-sex marriages performed in other states, discriminates against gays and should be repealed.

None of the language that was in the brief filed in June appeared anywhere in Monday's DOJ filing. And, in conjunction with that filing, Obama also issued a separate statement on Monday affirming that he would continue to seek repeal of DOMA.

This is certainly a step in the right direction but without a bill to repeal DOMA outright, it's still just a step.