A BLOW TO CANADA'S FAMILIES: David Frum

...Did homosexuals ever really want to marry in the first place?

There are about 24 million Canadians between the ages of 18 and 65. It's a reasonable guess that about 750,000 of them are gay.

In June and July 2003, the two largest English-speaking provinces, Ontario and British Columbia, began issuing marriage licences to same-sex couples. Within the first six months, some 300 Canadian same-sex couples had been married in B.C. Within the first year, about 4,000 Canadian couples had been married in Ontario.

Since then, the number of same-sex marriages seems to have dropped off. National statistics are hard to come by, but it's a good guess that 18 months after same-sex marriage arrived in Canada, some 98 percent of adult Canadian gays have chosen to ignore their new legal right.

Will same-sex marriage damage the institution of marriage generally?

Forty years ago, Canadian men and women faced one choice: Get married or stay single. Unsurprisingly, most of them chose to get married. Today, Canadians can choose from a proliferating menu of lifestyle options. Next year, there will be one more: a new form of marriage recognized by the government but condemned by every major religion in Canada. ...

Will the weakening of marriage harm Canadian children--and Canadian society?

When marriage declines, children lose. Children who grow up with their biological mother and biological father are dramatically--that is by margins from 50 percent to 300 percent--less likely to break the law, drop out of school, get pregnant in their teens and end up as single parents themselves than children raised by single parents or in stepfamilies. Today, after three decades of anti-family policy, a Canadian child's odds of reaching age 18 in the same home as his or her father and mother are less than 50-50.

As if recognizing that Canada is becoming an inhospitable place for children, Canadian women are giving birth to fewer and fewer of them.

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posted by Eve at 3:44 PM | link

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