With a recent lifting of the ban of the right to same-sex marriages in Massachusetts, sociologist Kersti Yllo says that ôsame-sex marriage recognizes the basic humanity of each of usö but that it will definitely threaten traditional marriage, and even change civilization as we know it (ôSociologistö 2003). Yllo points out that changes in society since the 1960s have already changed what was long considered traditional marriage, and that allowing same-sex marriages will remove the final barrier between the genders, which was the basis of traditional marriage. The traditional marriage prescribed distinct gender roles for males and females, although these roles have ben changing slowly over time. Women no longer vow to ælove, honor and obeyÆ their husbands, and with the advent of two-income families, with most women joining the work force and even some men staying home to mind the children, coupled with the developments in birth control and alternatives to conventional reproduction, marriage is just not what it used to be. Today, says Yllo, it is not about having children, but about love and commitment between two people.
With the increase in diversity of the American family, there is no longer a norm to which alternate forms can be compared (Ruether 19). According to the 1996 census, the single person household has become a major form in the United States, representing almost one third of all households. Thirty-four percent of households are two-income families, with or without children. The traditional family, with the male as the breadwinner, and the female staying home, now comprises less than one quarter of U.S. households. Blended families are common since roughly 50 percent of American marriages end in divorce and roughly 80 percent of divorcees remarry. Americans are also marrying later in life, once their careers are established.
Conservatives are worried by these types of statistics because they see the t...