Not that we need more floating around, but here are two good reasons why marriage equality is good policy. (I sure hope some New York State Senators are reading this blog, like they did back in March.)
1) Marriage changes us for the better, and everybody should be able to partake of that gift:
A new research paper studies how relationships change after marriage:
The belief that your partner helps you to better live up to your commitments and responsibilities was only found in more satisfied marriages … This belief wasn’t found as important in non-marital relationships (which is not surprising, since marriage is the epitome of a commitment one can make to another person).
2) It’s green to get hitched, yo:
I would like to offer my congratulations to the environmental movement: We have literally reached a place where even articles on the optimal age for matrimony include an analysis of carbon emissions:
Marriage may be bourgeois, but it’s also the greenest of all social structures. Michigan State ecologists estimate that the extra households created by divorce cost the nation 73 billion kilowatt hours of electricity and more than 600 billion gallons of water in a year. That’s a mighty big carbon footprint created in the name of solitude.
Hat tip: The amazing Chas Danner.
