What the Boss Likes – yep, the “sky is falling” claims of bigots have failed… again

I subscribe to the emails from the Rand Corporation, a huge global think tank that has done much research on various subjects over the years. They started as a part of military and space research, and ages ago when I had an internship at the Smithsonian, I handled some of those documents that were about the Apollo missions. Alas, not this one, “Preliminary Design of an Experimental World Circling spaceship” dated 1946

They just released “Twenty Years of Legal Marriage for Same-Sex Couples in the United States – Evidence Review and New Analyses, Published May 13, 2024”. As always happens, the doom and gloom claims of conservatives, mostly christians, have failed mightily. Ah, I remember when KISS was going to end the world, and “backmasking” was going to brainwash everyone.

“Key Findings

The evidence review revealed that for LGBT individuals and same-sex couples, their children, and the general U.S. population, the benefits of access to legal marriage for same-sex couples are unambiguously positive

• When states legalized marriage for same-sex couples, the physical health of LGBT individuals in those states improved; state-level rates of syphilis, HIV, and AIDS fell significantly; same-sex households in those states experienced more-stable relationships, higher earnings, and higher rates of homeownership; and sexual orientation–motivated hate crimes and employment discrimination against LGBT individuals declined.
• Children of same-sex couples benefited when their parents were granted access to legal marriage, and state-level adoption rates rose after marriage became legal for same-sex couples.
• No evidence was found of lasting negative changes in public opinion as a result of granting same-sex couples access to marriage. Nationally representative polls show that more than 70 percent of Americans now approve of marriage for same-sex couples.

The new analyses found no evidence for a retreat from marriage; in fact, there was evidence for a possible “increase” in marriage resulting from legalization of marriage between same-sex partners

• New marriages increased by 1 percent to 2 percent among different-sex couples and about 10 percent overall.
• The authors found no consistent evidence for an increase in cohabitation by unmarried different-sex couples or an increase in divorce as a consequence of legalizing marriage for same-sex couples.
• Among high school seniors, the authors found no evidence of a negative shift in marriage attitudes, and they found some evidence of an improvement.”