Where is Marriage Strongest?

Surprise! It’s in the six states that issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, while 31 have current constitutional bans against it – and those states have a much higher average rate of divorce.  In all cases of banishment, a primary line of reasoning was that permitting equal access to marriage to all consenting adult couples would result in damage to the institution of marriage.

As it turns out, in practice it is quite the opposite.  Marriage is strongest in states where all citizens have the legal right to marry their partners.  Massachusetts, the first state to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples over eight years ago, has the lowest divorce rate in the nation.  All other states and the District of Columbia range from very low rates of divorce to below the national average.