"The marital misbehavior of Schwarzenegger, a Roman Catholic, not to mention evangelical Protestants such as John Ensign and Mark Sanford, however, should not be mistaken for the norm among married men in America today, and especially for married men who are regular churchgoers. . . .
According to research by the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, Americans have become less tolerant of marital infidelity over the last forty years, and somewhat less likely to stray over the last 20 years. For instance, in the 1970s, 63 percent of men and 73 percent of women said marital infidelity is “always wrong.” In the 2000s, 78 percent of men and 84 percent of women said that marital infidelity is “always wrong.”
Likewise, in the 1990s, 17 percent of married men and 11 percent of married women reported that they had been unfaithful to their spouses. In the 2000s, infidelity reports fell to 16 percent and 10 percent, respectively, among men and women.
Infidelity is even less common among men and women who attend religious services regularly. Married men and women who attend church weekly are about half as likely to report sexual infidelity, compared to their peers who never attend church, according to research by sociologist Amy Burdette at Florida State University and her colleagues."
Want to lower your state's divorce rate? Make passing gay marriage your top priority while the economy tanks, sending the next generation of young families fleeing the state.
Going to any wedding this summer? Rich Benjamin isn't, at least if they are between a man and a woman:
I’m boycotting all heterosexual weddings.
... I call on all gay people to join my boycott of straight weddings this summer, regardless of where their straight loved ones stand. Yes, our boycott may bruise some feelings. But then again, our inability to participate in this institution is hurtful and bruising, too.
In recent years, many straight people have admirably pledged not to get married until gay people have the right to do so nationwide. I can’t ask friends like Zach to cancel their weddings, but I expect them to at least understand why I won’t attend. Straight friends and family need to accept their wedding invitations as collateral damage to exclusionary marriage laws. They should feel the consequences of this discrimination as sharply as we do.
Redwood Heights Elementary School will be teaching children in grades kindergarten through fifth that there are more than two genders. The two days calendared for this are entitled "Gender Spectrum Diversity Training."
... Another document from the school advises parents: "When you discuss gender with your child, you may hear them (sic) exploring where they (sic) fit on the gender spectrum and why."
... The activities and reading list include: Grades K-1: "Boy, girl or both? Which Outfit, Which Hairdo? (Reading) My Princess Boy."Grades 2-3 "What is gender? (Reading)10,000 Dresses." Grades 4-5: "Three dimensions of gender. (Reading/Song) All I Want to be is Me."
... "Though to many this may seem extreme, based upon some of the bills now pending in the Capitol such as SB 48, this will be the new normal in California's K-12 public schools," [attorney Kevin] Snider continued.
"He draws respectable turnout from New Hampshire voters and a huge entourage of reporters and photographers for his opening campaign tour, which ends today."
We have no idea, because USA Today doesn't tell us, what "respectable" means about actual voters, but the more important question here is: why are so many reporters turning out for a candidate at 2 percent in the polls?
Last Friday Paul Clement filed a motion on behalf of the U.S. House of Representatives to intervene in a lawsuit against DOMA currently pending in Massachusetts (Gill v. Office of Personnel Management and Massachusetts v. United States). The motion argues that the House of Representatives has standing in the case and is entitled to intervene to defend DOMA on Equal Protection grounds.
The high quality of this motion is a good sign of what we have to expect from Paul Clement’s representation of Congress in the case.
So do Gillibrand and Frank believe Obama is lying about his position on marriage now? Both of these via WonkRoom:
HARMON: So I’d have to pose the same question for President Obama. Do you think it’s possible that he could come out in support of marriage equality …
GILLIBRAND: Yes.
HARMON:…before the 2012 election?
GILLIBRAND: Definitely.
And:
During a separate event in Seattle on Tuesday, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) seemed to agree, telling a small group of activists, “This is just my intuition, but I think the President will be supportive of marriage in the states that offer it before the 2012 election.”
We can expect a lot more of this from the MSM. Let's note first of all that the behavior of the "waitress" in this setup up is outrageous.
No boss, and no customers would tolerate it. Not even in the "conservative" towns of Texas. Good news for American common sense.
The insidious propaganda point from ABC News is the suggestion that millions of good Americans who believe marriage means a man and a woman because children ought to have moms and dads, would or are behaving like this. Shame on ABC.
Be prepared for lot more prejudiced stereotyping of decent and honorable Americans down the road by powerful elites.
Last week we reported on a UK court ruling against the last Catholic adoption agency. Now we read in This Is London:
About 2,000 more foster carers are desperately needed in London as the number of children in care continues to rise, figures reveal today.
The shortage is particularly severe among those caring for teenagers, with every fostering service in the capital reporting a lack of people willing to take them in.
Nationwide, there is a shortfall of at least 10,000 foster families.
Mayor Boris Johnson called on Londoners to come forward and fill the shortage. He said: "It is an appalling situation, and a sad one, that London's teenagers are missing out on the foster homes they need. Childhood and our teenage years should be about making friends, learning, exploration and discovery, not worrying about our home life.
Interestingly, the Johns, who were recently told by a UK court that they could no longer be foster parents, specialized in fostering teenagers.
We already know that there are still gay people entering opposite sex marriages, at least sometimes even after identifying as gay (for example, here).
A 2008 study found that the inverse is also true: not all gay marriages are gay.
In fact about one in 10 women who entered a same-sex domestic partnership in California self-identified as bisexual or heterosexual (as did 8% of women in Vermont civil unions and 5% of women in Massachussetts same-sex marriages).
See Table 2 on page 60 [PDF] in Esther D. Rothblum, Kimberly F. Balsam and Sondra E. Solomon
“Comparison of Same-Sex Couples Who Were Married in Massachusetts, Had Domestic Partnerships in California, or Had Civil Union in Vermont,” Journal of Family Issues 2008.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo released a video today (embedded below) as part of his push to redefine marriage.
Problem is, he gets most of his facts wrong, such as when he says same-sex couples are "denied over one thousands federal and seven hundred state rights" because they cannot legally marry.
That's an old, discredited talking point. Back in April we noted that Poltificat-RI rated this claim about denied rights as "barely true" when it was floated by a pro-SSM spokesman in Rhode Island. And back in 2004, Josh Baker wrote a policy brief for the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy that came to the same conclusion about federal rights.
More importantly, Gov. Cuomo is wrong that New York is "falling behind" when it comes to marriage: just this spring Maryland and Rhode Island both rejected same-sex marriage, and in Minnesota the legislature just passed a marriage amendment defining marriage as the union of husband and wife. A vote for gay marriage would put New York out of the mainstream at this point.
On the Facebook wall for the organising group following the event, one of their own, Remulus Remegius said, "[I] was caught behind trying to get a friend to leave the christian chaps up the back alone. Although I don't agree with their message... It was sad to see so many launching an attack on them after a peaceful rally based around the idea of love and marriage. I understand the homophobia and bigotry those protesters must have represented to many of the people there... but surely we can conduct ourselves better. Hmmmm..."
NOM Chairman Maggie Gallagher quoted in the Wall Street Journal on the fight to protect marriage in New York:
A counter-campaign against gay marriage has started to heat up, while the most recent polls indicate that state voters are more evenly divided on the issue than previously thought. Previous polls showed a stronger majority support for a bill.
Opponents [of redefining marriage] say they're winning the battle in New York. "We're not taking anything for granted, but we feel more confident," said Maggie Gallagher, chairwoman for the National Organization for Marriage, a national opposition group that has pledged to pump $1 million into state legislative races next year.
With my 21st birthday just a few weeks away, it is expected that I plan a blowout party with copious amounts of alcohol, as my friends compile a list of 21 dares for me to complete while downtown — you know, kiss 21 guys, dance on a table, take a birthday shot, etc. Instead, I’m planning my wedding.
[Pause for disapproval.]
Yes, I’m getting married in a year. And no, I’m not pregnant or at risk of that. I have no ulterior motives. I’m taking this step because I’ve found the man I want — and ought — to spend the rest of my life with, and I’m ready.
Washington – The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) praised the Minnesota Legislature for voting in a bi-partisan fashion to put an amendment on the ballot in 2012 that would preserve marriage as the union of a man and a woman, and committed that it would support the amendment next year.
The following statement can be attributed to Brian Brown, president of NOM:
“We commend the bi-partisan majority in the Minnesota House of Representatives that voted Saturday night to put an amendment on the ballot preserving marriage as the union of a man and a woman. The House joins a bi-partisan majority in the state Senate, and the amendment will now go before voters in November 2012. NOM looks forward to supporting the campaign and lending our expertise and resources to those of allies in the state. We will have a thorough, respectful, discussion with the voters of Minnesota on all the reasons why the definition of marriage should be preserved as the union of a man and a woman, and to explain the risks to Minnesotans if they allow an activist judge or liberal legislators to redefine marriage in the future without public approval.
“The vote Saturday night represents another in a string of stinging defeats for the gay-marriage group Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and their state allies, and is further concrete evidence that the widely-reported claim that same-sex marriage is inevitable is a lie. No state in this nation has embraced same-sex marriage since 2009, and many have explicitly rejected it. In 2009, New York, New Jersey and Maine turned down gay marriage, and in 2010 voters in Iowa threw three judges off their Supreme Court who had imposed same-sex marriage. Earlier this year, Maryland and Rhode Island – two deep blue states who were said by the HRC to be likely to adopt gay marriage this year – explicitly rejected it. Now Minnesota, another liberal state, is on the path to enact a marriage amendment. We hope that the media will start to pay attention at what the American people are doing through their actions – they are rejecting same-sex marriage in droves.
“We are confident that voters in Minnesota will vote to adopt the marriage amendment preserving traditional marriage against judicial and legislative activism, just as voters in 30 other states have done. We look forward to being part of the campaign.”
Washington – The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) praised the Minnesota Legislature for 
