Marriage Matters
**UPDATE** Here's an article on the current status of Marriage in Canada after our neighbors to the north made marriage available to all couples.
Canadian same-sex unions growing at five times that rate of heterosexual ones: census
Wed Sep 12, 2007 8:51 AM
By Gregory Bonnell
OTTAWA (CP) - Same-sex unions are growing at five times the rate of
opposite-sex ones according to census numbers that also reveal, for the
first time, the number of homosexual marriages in Canada.
Some 45,300 couples, both common law and married, reported as same-sex in
the 2006 census, up from 34,200. Those numbers represent a 33 per cent surge
since 2001, while heterosexual couples grew by just six per cent in the same
time period.
The historic Statistics Canada query on same-sex marriage, coming in the
wake of Parliament legalizing such unions in 2005, revealed 7,465 homosexual
marriages.
That's considerably lower than numbers reported by the now-defunct advocacy
group Canadians For Equal Marriage. The group, based on its own research of
municipal records, reported last November that 12,438 marriage licences had
been granted to same-sex couples since provincial courts began recognizing
such unions in 2003.
The census relegated same-sex marriages to a write-in category under the
questionnaire's 'other' box - a move that raised the ire of Egale Canada.
The national advocacy group responded by urging its membership to list their
relationships as husband and wife.
"One box for everybody," is how executive director Helen Kennedy described
the group's position.
"People are people and people just want the same things out of life. Your
sexual orientation should not matter."
Anne Milan, a senior analyst at Statistics Canada, stands by the accuracy of
the census data but concedes the limitations of relying on the answers
people provide.
"It's the first time that we've asked same sex marriage so it's really a
benchmark number," said Milan, who added it's "difficult to say" what effect
Egale's dissent had on the numbers.
"Future census releases will allow us to compare the count and see what's
happening."
The fact that the question was being asked at all shows that "people are
getting on with their lives, which was fundamentally what the whole debate
was about," said Michael Leshner, a lawyer and one of Canada's first legally
married gay men.
"It's really a debate that hopefully has run its course... We're just part
of the boring middle class now," Leshner said.
According to the census, same-sex couples accounted for 0.6 per cent of all
couples in Canada. That falls in line with numbers reported in the United
States, New Zealand and Australia. More than half, or 54 per cent, of
same-sex married Canadian spouses were men.
Some nine per cent of same-sex couples had children, more commonly in female
unions (16 per cent) than male ones (three per cent). Children were present
more in same-sex married couples (16 per cent) than common-law ones (eight
per cent).
Clarence Lochhead of the Vanier Institute for the Family says the homosexual
community's successful fight for marriage reflects the desire to be accepted
in the larger community.
"To the extent that you can think of the homosexual community feeling that
they're marginalized populations, I don't think it's all that surprising
that they would want access to those forms of unions that are recognized in
a much wider social community sense," he said.
Ontario became the first province to legally recognize same-sex marriage
following a 2003 decision from the Ontario Court of Appeal. Similar
decisions followed in British Columbia, Quebec, Manitoba, Nova Scotia,
Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon, and New Brunswick.
On July 20, 2005, Canada became the third country in the world to legalize
same-sex marriage, after the Netherlands and Belgium. Spain and South Africa
have since legalized homosexual marriage as well.
"As my spouse Mike Starkel always says, we won. There's nothing they can do,
we won," said Leshner.
Back in The US, Marriage offers many legal benefits and responsibilities that protect families.
Here are just a fraction of why marriage matters to those couples who choose
to marry.
The Practical
Marriage offers 1,138 Federal benefits and responsibilities, not including
hundreds more offered by every state.
-
In times of crisis, spouses have hospital visitation rights and can make
medical decisions in event of illness or disability of their spouse.
- Employers
offer spouses sick leave, bereavement leave, access to health
insurance and pension
- The law provides certain automatic rights to a person's
spouse regardless of whether or not a will exists.
- Married couples in elderly care facilities are generally
not separated unless one spouse's health dictates hospitalization
or special care.
- The dissolution of a marriage requires a determination of property distribution,
award of child custody and support and spousal support. Absent divorce,
there is no uniform system for sorting out the ending of a relationship.
The Finances
Financial issues are complex and challenging, no matter the couple. And when
home ownership, kids and other assets are a part of the equation, planning
for the present and especially the future is even more critical for greater
security.
- Married couples are permitted to give an unlimited amount of gifts to each
other without being taxed.
- The law presumes that a married couple with both names
on the title to their home owns the property as "tenants by the entirety."
- A married couple, by statute, has creditor protection of their marital
home.
- Many married people are entitled to financial benefits relating to their
spouses, such as disability, pension and social security benefits.
- With marriage, a couple has the right to be treated as an economic unit
and to file joint tax returns (and pay the marriage penalty), and obtain
joint health, home and auto insurance policies.
- When a spouse dies, there is no need to prove ownership of every item
in the household for taxable purposes.
Protecting Children
- A child who grows up with married parents benefits
from the fact that his or her parents' relationship is recognized
by law and receives legal protections.
- Spouses are generally entitled to joint child custody and visitation
upon divorce (and bear an obligation to pay child support).
- The mark of a strong family and healthy children is having parents who
are nurturing, caring, and loving. Parents should be judged on their ability
to
parent, not by their age, race, religion, gender, disability, sexual
orientation or gender identity.
A recent study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, entitled The Effects of Marriage, Civil Union, and Domestic Partnership Laws on the Health and Well-being of Children
found that:
* Same-gender couples live in 99.3% of all US counties.
* Same-gender couples are raising children in at least 96% of all US counties.
* Nearly one quarter of all same-gender couples are raising children.
* Nationwide, 34.3% of lesbian couples are raising children, and 22.3% of gay male couples are raising children (compared with
45.6% of married heterosexual and 43.1% of unmarried heterosexual couples raising children).
* Vermont has the largest aggregation of same gender-couples (~1% of all households) followed by California, Washington, Massachusetts, and Oregon.
According to a new study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics:
Census 2000 and related demographic research make it clear that parenting by same-gender couples is an established and growing part of the diverse structure of families in the United States. Public policies that aim to promote family stability and security typically are established without consideration for same-gender parents and their children, and they place these families at a disadvantage, as they do heterosexual unmarried parents, single parents, and extended-family caregivers.
Public policy designed to promote the family as the basic building block of society has at its core the protection of children's health and well-being. Children's well being relies in large part on a complex blend of their own legal rights and the rights derived, under law, from their parents. Children of same-gender parents often experience economic, legal, and familial insecurity as a result of the absence of legal recognition of their bonds to their nonbiological parents. Current public-policy trends, with notable exceptions, favor limiting or prohibiting the availability of civil marriage and limiting rights and protections to same-gender couples.
To read more about this study go to: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/118/1/349
The Healthy Advantage
Studies show that people who are married tend to live longer and lead healthier
lives.
- For adults, a stable, happy marriage is the best protector
against illness and premature death. Decades of research have clearly established
these links.
(Burman & Margolin, 1992; Dawson, 1991; Verbrugge, 1979).
- Studies on marriages have found that married people
live longer, have higher incomes and wealth, engage less in risky behaviors,
eat more
healthily, and have fewer psychological problems than unmarried people. (Waite,
Linda
J. "Why
Marriage Matters." Strengthening Marriage Roundtable. Washington,
DC, June 1997)
- Research shows that unmarried couples have lower levels of happiness
and well-being than married couples. (Popenoe, David and Dafoe Whitehead, Barbara,
USA Today,
July, 2000)
A recent study shows that denying same-sex couples the right to marry has a negative impact on their mental health.
- I Do, But I can't: The impact of marriage denial on the mental health of sexual citizenship of Lesbians and Gay Men in the United States (Herdt, G. & Kertzner, R. 2006).
http://www.nsrc.sfsu.edu
|
