A new report from RAND and UCLA stated, “over the 20 years that same-sex couples have been able to marry in the United States, there have been no negative effects on marriage, divorce or cohabitation among different-sex couples…Researchers also reviewed nearly 100 studies that have examined the consequences of same-sex marriage on multiple measures of family formation and well-being and found consistent results indicating significant benefits to same-sex couples and no harm to different-sex unions.”
In my book I admit that Marriage Equality was not a big deal to me at the time – I was still “emerging” from the closet and I had already been legally married, then divorced, from my ex-wife (ironically also 20 years 😊). Now that I am in a same-sex marriage, I have a different perspective on how hard others fought for this benefit for me and my husband, and for the continuous struggle to validate (almost 100 studies!) and allowing people to love who they want is healthy and normal.
Now I’m on the inside looking out – despite the 20+ years of healthy relationships and studies on same-sex marriages, it will likely be challenged someday on the Federal level or possibly in one or more states. It’ll be a shame if something as simple and ordinary as marriage is taken away – it feels so unnecessary.
You don’t have to agree with me and of course that’s okay. Similarly I probably don’t agree with all of your beliefs. But when someone else’s beliefs dictate how I should live my life and/or decides whether my marriage is ‘real’ or not, then we have a problem.
Peter Leahy
A self-proclaimed “ideas guy,” I’ve worked in marketing for over twenty-five years. After years of sadness, emptiness and self-loathing, I finally came out of the closet in 2013 and reinvented myself. Now happily married to my husband for over two years, we live in California with our Chihuahua Felicia, the queen of our household.
