Libertarian-minded columnist Cathy Young has an interesting take
on what's happened since the Netherlands first legalized registered
same-sex partnerships, and then full gay marriage. She finds that
neither the social conservatives' fears of moral chaos, nor the
optimistic predictions of some activists, have come true.
She writes:
As this [Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics] table shows, same-sex marriages peaked in 2001 when they were first legalized; that year, there were 1,339 male-male marriage and 1,035 female-female ones. (Male-female marriages that year numbered 79,677.) The figures have dropped in every subsequent year, to 579 male-male marriages and 631 female-female marriages in 2004. In the same year, there were 261 civil partnerships registered between two men, and 322 between two women; these figures have held relatively steady over the past four years. (Registered partnerships first became available in 1998.) . . .
. . .[W]hile I fully support legal rights for same-sex partners, I think both sides in the marriage debate have been prone to unwarranted and exaggerated claims about the social impact of same-sex marriage. The legalization of same-sex marriage has not, as some have claimed, led to polygamy in the Netherlands. But at least so far, it has not created a "marriage culture" among gays and has not boosted marriage among heterosexuals. As we continue our own discussion of same-sex marriage, we need to have all the facts on the table.
Of course, the Netherlands isn't the U.S. And just because many
choose partnerships over marriage (because they're easier to
dissolve) when both are available, or take advantage of neither,
doesn't mean that marriage isn't going to transform gay culture in
profound ways.