Stay Strong for Equality

From CNN Breaking News emails: "Federal appeals court blocks same-sex marriages in California until it considers broader constitutional questions."

I believe in the fundamental right for all people to be married.  I mean come on, it's not like us hetero's have done such an amazing job with the industry of marriage.  To be fair, I am not married, nor have I been.  So let's put my opinion aside and review some statistics.   According to http://www.divoricemag.com/ here are a few stats:
"Here's a sampling of some of the most recently available statistics on marriage and divorce in the United States of America:
•There were approximately 2,230,000 marriages in 2005 -- down from 2,279,000 the previous year, despite a total population increase of 2.9 million over the same period.

•The divorce rate in 2005 (per 1,000 people) was 3.6 -- the lowest rate since 1970, and down from 4.2 in 2000 and from 4.7 in 1990. (The peak was at 5.3 in 1981, according to the Associated Press.)

•The marriage rate in 2005 (per 1,000) was 7.5, down from 7.8 the previous year.

•In 2004, the state with the highest reported divorce rate was Nevada, at 6.4 (per 1,000). Arkansas was a close second, with a divorce rate of 6.3, followed by Wyoming at 5.3. The District of Columbia had the lowest reported divorce rate, at 1.7, followed by Massachusetts at 2.2 and Pennsylvania at 2.5. (Figures were not complete for California, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Louisiana, or Oklahoma.)

•8.1% of coupled households consist of unmarried heterosexual partners, according to The State of Our Unions 2005, a report issued by the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University. The same study said that only 63% of American children grow up with both biological parents -- the lowest figure in the Western world.

•As of 2003, 43.7% of custodial mothers and 56.2% of custodial fathers were either separated or divorced. And in 2002, 7.8 million Americans paid about $40 billion in child and/or spousal support (84% of the payers were male).

•Americans tend to get married more between June and October than during the rest of the year. In 2005, August had the most marriages at about 235,000 or a rate of 9.3 per 1,000 people. The previous year, July was the highest month at 246,000, or a rate of 9.9; this doubled the lowest month in 2004, January.
(Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, National Center for Health Statistics)"

No one has the right to tell anyone how to live their life.  Above anything, above culture, sex, when & where a person was born, the one thread that we all have in common first, is that we are all human.  And in my humble opinion, it is inhumane to deny another human their fundamental right to wed the one they love.

Stay strong for equality!
XOXO,
Alexandra