Quote:
Originally Posted by punch it in
I dont think he was saying gay marriage "doesnt" make for a stable society. Just how "does" it? How does heterosexual marriage make for one either?
Are single people any less stable than married ones?
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Leaving the tag of gay or straight off of it, marriage is a stabilizing force in society for several reasons.
1) Married couples tend to be stationary. A single person can uproot fairly quickly from a community, and move to another one. Single people can be far more transient, simply because if he/she decides it's time to go, they can go. Married couples often create dual entanglements, that would just by inertia keep them in a community even if one partner gets a yearning to move.
2) Marriage usually leads to children, and a vested interest in a safe community for them. Singles (not single parents but "singles") again may just up and move if a neighborhood gets rougher, rather than staying and working to fix the problem. Not that couples with kids won't up and move, just that it's not the first solution because of the layers of complexities attached to it.
3) Couples with 2 jobs in an area are less likely to shift out of a community for one better job else where, but a single person given even a slightly better opportunity may pack up and leave.
I am sure there are more examples. And to be clear, stability isnt speaking of mental stability, but communal stability where neighborhoods can evolve and grow based on the knowledge that the people in it have a vested interest in its ongoing growth, security, and success.
In that sense, any partnership that leads to roots being planted can lead to greater stability, and back to the outlier idea of incestual couples, if that couple's background isn't known, then the argument of increased stability applies to them just as any other couple, but if it is known then that communal stability might be lessened if people are outraged and want to leave. Likewise, if a gay couple is in a neighborhood that accepts them (which i would hope more and more are becoming) then the argument of increased stability applies, but if the neighborhood doesn't accept them, it can add instability.