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Wolf2Bear -> RE: Why are people afraid of same-sex marriage? (1/13/2010 7:30:43 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: AsmodaisSin
quote:
ORIGINAL: Wolf2Bear
AsmodaisSin...check my profile and you will see that I reside in Canada. This country has legally recognized gay marriages for approx 12 years so my post still hold validity.
Ah. I'll have to look into that. Do you have any viable data?
Exert taken from here
"Same-Sex Unions
In 2001 Statistics Canada began collecting information about same-sex partnerships, and about 0.5% of all couples reported living in same-sex unions. The questions on the survey did not include information regarding sexual orientation, therefore the data on same-sex partnerships cannot be used to report on the number of gays and lesbians in Canada, only the number of relationships that involve two people of the same gender. Since 2003, when Ontario and British Columbia became the first two provinces to legalize same-sex marriage, most of the provinces and one territory have recognized same-sex marriages. In 2005, the federal Civil Marriage Act was enacted making same-sex marriage legal across Canada. This change required that definitions for husband and wife be amended to "spouse," and the definition for dependent children became "enfant à charge" to include and protect same-sex spouses and their children. The Income Tax Act replaced the term "natural parent" with "legal parent" to ensure that upon divorce, support payments would include the children of opposite-sex and same-sex couples. The Supreme Court also ruled that under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, a religious official cannot be compelled to perform same-sex marriages if it is contrary to their religious beliefs; however, the government does have a duty to provide access to civil marriage for those same-sex couples who want to marry. It is difficult to determine the number of same-sex marriages because some of the provinces do not specify that a marriage is opposite-sex, male same-sex, or female same- sex, or the gender of the person getting married. During British Columbia's first year of legalized marriages of same-sex couples, 3.5% of the marriages were same-sex marriages and of these, 54.5% were female couples. Over one-quarter (27.6%) of women who married another woman had previously been married, while 14.2% of the men who married another man had previously been married. In 2003, Canada was the only country in the world that allowed same-sex marriages between people who were not Canadian residents, and during that year, 56% of the same-sex marriages involved non-residents, although the vast majority (95%) did live in Canada.
Demographic Trends for Canadian Families
The demographic trends that have been noted for Canadian families (eg, rising divorce rate and greater numbers of WOMEN IN THE LABOUR FORCE) are not restricted to Canada but are typical of all highly industrialized nations, although significant national differences remain. Another common trend among industrialized countries is a sharp decline in fertility rates. In Canada between 1960 and 1980, fertility rates dropped by more than 50% in all age categories and by 2003 the birth rate was 10.6 per 1000 people. While the average number of children per woman was 3.9 in 1960, within 40 years that figure had dropped to 1.5.
Contemporary Families
Although marriage is defined as a partnership of equals, the economic consequences of a divorce tend to be more negative for women and children and neutral or positive for men. The increase in the number of divorces, and the consequent increase in remarriages, coupled with the increase in the proportion of women who give birth outside of marriage, has led to a discrepancy between marital and parental roles: an increasing proportion of the people who are parents together are not necessarily married to each other. This discrepancy has different consequences for men and women: most women continue to live together with most of their dependent biological children, while many men do not share a household with (all) their biological children. For children this means that they may have parents living in separate households, or that they may live with a step-parent. The availability of divorce and the marked increase in common-law relationships underlines the voluntary rather than compulsory character of marriage. See also HISTORY OF MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE. Author M. EICHLER
Suggested Reading
B. Bradbury, Working Families (1993); J. Dumas and A. Belanger, Report on the Demographic Situation in Canada 1995 (1996); M. Eichler, Families in Canada Today (1988); J.G. Snell, In the Shadow of the Law. Divorce in Canada 1900-1939 (1991); Vanier Institute of the Family, Profiling Canada's Families (1994)."
Divorce Rates in Canada
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