One of the arguments against same-sex marriage — an argument made in every state where a ban on gay marriage was passed, including Utah — is that gay marriage will destroy traditional marriage.
The statistics, though, seem to argue the opposite.
According to a study by the Centers for Disease Control (reported here by Nate Silver on FiveThirtyEight.com, which crunched the numbers), the divorce rates in states that legalized gay marriage went down 8 percent between 2003 and 2008 — while divorce rates in states that banned gay marriage have gone up 1 percent.
In Utah, by Silver’s calculations, the divorce rate climbed 10.5 percent from 2003 to 2008. Utah’s Amendment 3, which put a gay-marriage ban in the state’s constitution, was passed in 2004.
For comparison, Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriage in 2004. In the same period, that state’s divorce rate dropped 20.7 percent.
