I just looked at these stats again. Shouldn’t the number level off? Wouldn’t we assume that the first year would be the highest, and then taper off in the following years? Doesn’t that just make sense?
From an article on the percentage who marry:
Congratulations Panache
In the immortal words of Kinky Friedman: I support gay marriage. I believe they have a right to be as miserable as the rest of us.
Why wouldn’t the numbers go down like that? Same-sex marriage was not allowed before 2001, which means that in 2001 you had all the marriages that would have occurred in 2001 and many of the ones that would have occurred before that.
cornopean: I like you because you have almost the same name as a store in my town.
So, I’m asking this honestly: Can you give me one good reason why it shouldn’t be called “marriage”?
Appeals to tradition aren’t good reasons. After all, our marriage traditions really don’t go back very far, in the scheme of things.
Appeals to religion aren’t good reasons. After all, not everyone shares your religion.
Appeals to biology and children aren’t good reasons. After all, plenty of people who can’t and/or shouldn’t have and/or raise kids get married.
So, can you give me a good reason?
I would like to know the REAL reason panache45 is getting married.
He’s up to something, I can feel it in my gut.
/Satire.
Touché . And congrats!
Congrats!
I would also like to add that your relationship has lasted 7 times longer than my marriage. Yet, until very recently, my marriage was considered more valid than yours. That’s screwed up.
Do you understand why “non-gays” want to call their relationship a “marriage”?
Yes, yes … I’ve been ninja’d already by at least half a dozen posters – but I had to say it anyway! 
I suppose it’s because they deserve the right to be as unhappy as the rest of us.
May all of their marriages be as unhappy as mine!
Actually the government benefits and responsibilities are the major reason we’ll be getting married. Sure California offered benefits that were virtually the same as marriage, but that didn’t travel. In Ohio where our families live we’re basically legal strangers. Well, were until a couple weeks ago.
That’s a good point, too. In a modern society gays deserve the same right as the rest of us to engage in acrimonious divorces in which each party hires a bloodthirsty, fanged carnivorous lawyer that normally comes on a short studded leash, but which can be unleashed and incited to attack, usually with most entertaining results. I believe the Biblical types refer to this as “the sanctity of marriage”.
Willie Nelson has also used that line. The Kinkster has never married but Willie has–four times.
Everyone has used that line. Trying to track down who said it first is like trying to figure out who first asked why the chicken crossed the road.
Why do closed minded people not want gays to call their relationships marriage? Isn’t that an acknowledgement that the word marriage has deep meaning?
Some people are fighting to keep marriage from gays for the same reasons gays are fighting for marriage.
Because he wants to make sure that handsome guy next door doesn’t run away. Is it ok to ask for pics when we’re in GD?
I’m remembering the look in my brother’s face for the first months of his marriage, whenever he said mi señora (my wife, my lady). He eventually acquiesced to her requests and cut it out, but not before getting his fill of saying it. I’ve met many other people who did similar things, some of them decades after being married - they say “my husband” or “my wife” with a grin bigger than this: :D. Why would someone who happens to be gay not want to have that pleasure?
I thought Willie Nelson’s version was “I’m in favour of any marriage that doesn’t involve me”?
I’m pretty damned certain the OP hasn’t used that line.
Similarly, Gore Vidal said, in an interview with Time Magazine, something like (paraphrased from memory): “Heterosexual marriage is an unmitigated disaster. Why would gays want to emulate that?”
OP’s Wiki link: in the Netherlands there were 14,813 same-sex marriages between 2001 and 2011. There were 761,010 heterosexual marriages. So of all marriages, 1.9% were same-sex.
Estimates of homosexuality vary from 1-10%, with the higher number encompassing those who have had at least one same-sex encounter during their lifetimes. I see from wiki that the Williams Institute report pegs the number of lesbian, gay, or bisexuals at 3.5% of the adult population.
All of these numbers are rough and subject to error, but given that multiple intimate living arrangements are recognized by the Netherlands government (I counted 3), 1.9% doesn’t strike me as low or high for that matter. I’d need to look at a more detailed analysis.
Shotgun wedding?
Oh, wait…
cornopean, welcome to the 21st century. I realize there are going to be some things that will take some getting used to: it’s not “gay marriage” any more, it’s just “marriage.” We have a black president. The World Trade Center got blowed up, and we invaded Iraq because a bunch of Saudis did it. Best of luck adjusting to this brave new world.