The Benefits of Legalization.

Legalizing "it" may be beneficial in more ways than one.

Not that "it"... the other "it".

A new study by some economists at Emory University in Atlanta says that intolerance towards gays, in the form of gay marriage bans, may increase HIV infection rates.

Hugo Mialon and Andrew Francis say that banning gay marriage and sending a tone of intolerance can drive gay people to "underground" sexual behaviors that carry more risk of HIV infection. They estimate that banning gay marriage may increase HIV infections by 4 cases per 100,000 people.

The Centers for Disease Control estimated that the nationwide HIV infection rate in 2003 was 127.8 per 100,000 people.

image: http://blog.beliefnet.com/tonyjones/marriage.jpg

Support for Gay Marriages... or Funerals

A growing number of Americans describe themselves as "atheist."  And among secular Americans, support for gay marriage runs around 75% - greater even than President Obama's approval rating.  So it's not entirely surprising that now, for the first time, it seems that more Americans support gay marriage than oppose it.  

However, it's worth a moment to remember that not everyone approves of gays - much less gay marriage.  Once-tolerant attitudes in Senegal, for example, are becoming less tolerant.  The body of a man thought to be gay has been dug up from the grave twice after his family attempted to bury him.  Some people did not want the man to be buried where he was.

Let's Not Talk About Single Parents or Divorce, Shall We?

In the recent kerfuffle over Miss California Carrie Prejean's answer to Perez Hilton's question about gay marriage, Dan Savage pointed out in the New York Times that "no contestant would stand on that stage and argue for a ban on interracial marriage or come to the defense of a country clubs that banned Jewish members or condemn single mothers. All those positions were once considered thoroughly respectable, and people could argue for them on TV — pundits, candidates, beauty pageant contestants — without fear or repercussion. Not true today."

But that's an interesting point.  With divorce rates hovering around 40%, and 35% of births happening outside of wedlock, single-parent households are not uncommon.  And what's more, the public discourse surrounding divorce and single-parenting today is either nonexistent, indicating an ambivalent attitude on the part of the public, or shows it in a negative light, according to a study in the Journal of Marriage and Family.

Have we in the United States, as a society, really changed our views from 100 years ago?  Or have we simply swept our views under the rug?

photo: www.insolvency.co.za