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Q: Would the legalization of gay marriage result in a net benefit to heterosexuals? Yes: Divorce rates triggered by fraudulent marriages will go down and more children will grow up in stable homes.

Article Excerpt
Byline: Michael Alvear, SPECIAL TO INSIGHT

As outrageous as it may sound, gay marriage will greatly improve the lives of heterosexuals. It will reduce the number of divorces caused by fraudulent marriages, ensure that more orphaned children grow up in stable and loving homes, raise the standard of living for children with gay parents, make neighborhoods safer for families and boost the economies of struggling communities.

It is not the license to marry that will create these benefits; it is the massive shift in attitude that will result from it. Allowing gays to marry will do to homophobia what civil-rights legislation did for racism - reduce it substantially over the years.

The more gays are accepted as equal citizens, the more stable heterosexual marriage will become. Why? Because there are an untold number of traditional marriages that break up because one spouse comes out of the closet.

Homophobia drives gay men and women into fraudulent marriages. Pressure to conform, the weight of discrimination, potential loss of cherished dreams - serving in the military, worshipping in church, getting job promotions, raising kids - propels many into marriages to which they otherwise wouldn't commit.

Take my friend Cooper. Cooper is 64. He was married for 38 years. The divorce is pending. He leaves behind him a woman whose life was shattered by a truth that tunneled its way out of the mounds of shame, hostility and hatred that society heaped on it. Homophobia has a way of wounding gay and straight alike. It creates...