Hawaii Marriage Decision Underlines Importance of Studies
National Catholic Register, August 10, 2012 (excerpt)
...Helen Alvare, a professor of family law at George Mason University, noted that when Kay affirmed the state’s interest in upholding traditional marriage, he cited new social research that has ignited a furor among proponents of same-sex “marriage.”
In recent decades, researchers have consistently documented better outcomes for children raised in two-parent homes with both biological parents. This year, Mark Regnerus, a University of Texas sociologist released a “New Family Structures” study, which concluded that children raised by parents who had, at some point, engaged in a same-sex relationship faced a host of serious problems in childhood and beyond.
“When the court says that the state has a rational basis for preserving marriage between a man and a woman, it relies on two studies that show problematic outcomes for children born in other kinds of households,” said Alvare, editor of the forthcoming book of essays Breaking Through: Catholic Women Speak for Themselves (OSV Books).
To defend the constitutionality of traditional marriage, she added, “The state needs a rational argument for why its law is good for people.” The emerging social research strengthens the rational basis for the state’s defense of marriage as between one man and one woman.
read … Federal Court in Hawaii Upholds Traditional Marriage
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