Scandinavian marriage scorned as model for U.S.

Traditional-values supporters are using Scandinavia and its liberal embrace of domestic partnerships and unwed childbearing to argue why same-sex “marriage” would be unhealthy for American culture.

In Scandinavia, marriage is now seen as “outdated,” said Stanley Kurtz, senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution. Cohabiting, unwed childbearing and domestic partnerships are now common in these cultures, he said.

Unfortunately for children, “fragile families” are two to three times more likely than married families to break up, and family dissolution rates have soared, he said in an interview.

Most liberal and conservative thinkers in this country believe marriage is a vital social institution. Marriage is important and that is why homosexual couples deserve equal access to it, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court said in its landmark Nov. 18 ruling that legalized “marriage” for same-sex couples.

The 4-3 decision noted that marriage “anchors an ordered society by encouraging stable relationships over transient ones,” helps ensure “that children and adults are cared for and supported,” and “provides for the orderly distribution of property.”

But in countries such as Sweden, Denmark and Norway, where same-sex couples have had rights similar to heterosexual couples for a decade or more, “marriage is slowly dying,” Mr. Kurtz said.

Mr. Kurtz said there are two main reasons for this. First, marriage is no longer seen as a prerequisite for parenthood, and second, marriage has become just another choice in the smorgasbord of adult relationships.

When marital and nonmarital couples, including homosexual domestic partnerships, are treated the same in society, people begin to think that all family forms are equal and acceptable — that marriage doesn’t matter, two parents don’t matter, having the same mother and father around for life doesn’t matter, Mr. Kurtz said.

Also, same-sex “marriage” only becomes conceivable if the public begins to see marriage as “a relationship between two people” that is not intrinsically connected to parenthood. That is why same-sex “marriage” reinforces and even accelerates a trend away from marriage, according to Mr. Kurtz, who presented his full arguments in the Feb. 2 issue of the Weekly Standard.

Homosexual rights groups dismiss the argument that American society will become like Scandinavia.

“I’ve heard those arguments before and they are completely misleading,” said Michael Adams, director of education at Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Changes in Scandinavian families began long before same-sex couples were given “marriage” rights, and “there is zero evidence of any connection between gay couples marrying in those countries and these other problems,” he said.

“I’ve heard the [Scandinavia] arguments but honestly, I always find them baffling,” said Lisa Bennett, who handles family issues at the Human Rights Campaign.

American and Scandinavian cultures “are very different,” she said. “If we don’t compare ourselves to Scandinavia in all sorts of other ways, why compare in this regard?”

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