Gay Marriage in The Netherlands Proves No Impact on Straight Marriage, Discovers New Web Site Company Featuring Narrated European Photo Tours
SAN JOSE, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 08/30/2005 -- As California State Senators prepared to decide whether to legalize marriage equity for gays, on Monday, August 29th, they were alerted about results of a new study released first to them. It proves marriage equity had no effect on straight marriage in The Netherlands/Holland. This report also refutes the significance of statistics often used in arguments against legalizing marriage equity in the U.S. Equally important, it disproves recent anti-marriage equity articles that use The Netherlands as an example of why marriage equity will not work in the U.S. Now the public can read this report and extensive related information posted on www.EuropeByPhoto.com, the Web site of a new company launched this week called Muses Explorations. On the home page of the Web site, visitors are invited to "Take Breathtaking Photo Tours of Europe's Unexpected Sites."
Other states and courts in the United Sates are slated to decide about marriage equity in the future.
"When researching for Muses Explorations, I was impressed to learn that The Netherlands was the first country in the world to legalize marriage equity in 2001," says Fiona Lucille Friedland, Founder/CEO of Muses Explorations. "The U.S. Declaration of Independence says, 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' So I was shocked to read articles against marriage equality in the U.S. These articles gave The Netherlands as an example of how marriage equity supposedly harmed children and traditional families."
Friedland continues, "During a recent TV special on the Wright Brothers' 100-year anniversary of being first in flight, they were quoted as saying that key to their success was questioning the widely believed assumptions about flight. Thinking about the Wright Brothers, I developed a research plan. Then I hired a research team to learn whether the statistics about marriage equity in The Netherlands held water and learn more about this topic in that country."
Friedland emphasizes, "Results of the research are similar to the following: You hear all your life that real estate in a certain town is outrageously expensive because it went up 10 fold over the last 30 years, so you should never try to buy a home there. Then you discover that throughout the entire state real estate went up 10 fold during those exact same years, so there was no reason all along to avoid that town. You would have been perfectly safe."
While extensive information on marriage equity and supporting topics can be found on www.EuropeByPhoto.com, below are a few highlights of what the research team found. Graduates and students from the Jesuit and Catholic University of Santa Clara, as well as a recent graduate from University of California's Hastings School of Law, comprised the research team. Sources of this information can be found on the Web site. More information on this topic will be added to www.EuropeByPhoto.com over time:
-- Although the marriage rate in the Netherlands has declined recently, it would be a mistake to attribute the decrease to same-sex marriage. In fact, "with a few exceptions, marriage rates have decreased" from 1980 to 2001 throughout Europe, the United States and Canada). Some attribute the Dutch decrease to an overall increase in the average age of the Dutch population, and Dutch demographers also believe the decrease in heterosexual marriage is largely due to poor economics within the state.
Regardless of the cause, it is evident that "heterosexual couples in those countries were clearly not deterred from marrying by the legalization of same-sex couples' rights."
-- Divorce rates have not been adversely affected by the extension of same-sex marriage rights.
-- Although cohabitation rates have increased in the Netherlands, it would be incorrect to claim the increase came as a result of same-sex marriage rights. "High cohabitation rates came first, gay partnership laws followed," not the other way around.
-- The Netherlands is not the only European country that is experiencing soaring out-of-wedlock birthrates: "the same rapid rise in nonmarital births that we see in the Netherlands in the 1990s also occurred in other European countries that initially had low nonmarital birth rates. Nonmarital births have soared in Ireland, Luxembourg, Hungary, Lithuania, and several other eastern European countries -- all countries that do not allow same-sex couples to marry or register."