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| Maggie Gallagher of NOM |
Problems with #SSM in the Netherlands: little demand, instability, losing rights to religious exemptions.. http://myop.us/XzhrZI @MarriageNZ
The tweet links to New Zealand version of an anti-marriage equality webpage (which I am certain NOM has a lot to do with. The title of the page is called Protect Marriage - One Man. One Woman. That's Marriage.)
The page in question outlines supposed problems with marriage equality in the Netherlands by spotlighting certain statistics. One in particular stood out. It was about the supposed instability of gay men:
Instability of relationships
Recent research from a major British medical journal AIDS on male same-sex relationships in the Netherlands — arguably one of the most gay friendly cultures on earth — indicates gay men have a very difficult time living by the values of marriage. This study found that steady homosexual relationships in the very gay-friendly city of Amsterdam, on average, last only 1.5 years. The study also found that gay men in steady relationships there have an average of eight partners a year outside of their current relationships.
The footnote says this citation is:
Maria Xiridou, et al., “The Contributions of Steady and Casual Partnerships to the Incidence of HIV Infection Among Homosexual Men in Amsterdam,” AIDS, 17 (2003): 1029.38.
Now some of you will point out the easy distortion with this study, i.e. the date. The study is nine years old. So much "recent research."
However, don't leave it at that. There are so many other morsels of distortion behind the usage of this study.
Xiridou's study was not designed to look at married gay couples. It was designed to "access the relative contribution of steady and casual partnerships to the incidence of HIV infection among homosexual men in Amsterdam and to determine the effect of increasing sexually risky behaviours among both types of partnerships in the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy."
No lesbian couples were interviewed. For this study, Dr. Xiridou received her information from the Amsterdam Cohort Study of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and AIDS Among Homosexual Men. To gain this information, researchers studied 1,800 gay men between the years of 1984- 2000. Same sex marriage was legalized in the Netherlands in 2001, thus making the information irrelevant to points about gay marriage. Information for the Amsterdam Cohort Study is found here.
In other words, Xiridou's study is being used to demonize married gay couples when in fact no married gay couple took part in the study.
Way to go, NOM. In your eagerness to demonize same-sex couples, you take part in a distortion that easy to refute.
Happy Thanksgiving, you turkeys.
4 comments:
Even if gays WERE less stable than straights and WERE more prone to disease or early death and so on, do these whack-jobs ever attempt to explain why that should preclude them from marriage?
Are unstable straights barred from marriage? Smokers (who have a higher risk of disease or early death)? Those who have a history of multiple marriages and divorces? Straights with a history of promiscuity? Gambling problems? You get the idea. Even straight serial killers still have the right to marry.
I'd love to see ol' Mags (or Brian or Tony or Peter or any one of them who insist gays shouldn't marry because they're emotionally or medically inferior) answer that one.
The study also seems to be a comparative one; Casual vs. Steady. Thus, about half the study subjects should ideally be selected due to their casual sexual encounters (for NOMers thats 50%). Therefor an ideal study of this nature would highlight at least this much.
If this is the same study they keep rehashing, I believe they did not allow any monogamous couples to participate.
you are correct, jason ;p
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