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Washington (CNN) -- The Supreme Court will hear arguments this week in two same-sex marriage cases. Whatever the justices do, the outcome seems foreordained. When 80% of Americans under 30 agree about something, that something will happen -- it's only a matter of time.

But while straight young Americans support marriage for gays, increasingly they opt against marriage for themselves. Nearly half of American children, 48%, are now born to unmarried women. Among women without college degrees, and of all races, unwed motherhood has become the norm.

This is the crisis of the American family. Whether same-sex marriage proceeds fast or slow, whether it extends to all 50 states or stops with the current nine plus the District of Columbia, the crisis will be the same.

Children born to single parents face much longer odds in life than children born to married parents. (A new study by ThirdWay.org suggests that the harms are especially intense for boys, less so for girls.) "Odds" are not rules, of course. There are always exceptions.

On average, however, children born to married mothers and fathers are more likely to finish college, more likely to avoid prison and more likely to form marriages themselves than children born to single parents. And precisely because the harms of single parenthood tend to be self-replicating, the breakdown of marriage threatens to harden into a caste divide, with some families launched into cycles of downward mobility because of the unstable relationships of parents or grandparents or great-grandparents.

For 20 years, Americans have fiercely debated whether gays -- who constitute maybe 3% of the population -- should be allowed to marry each other. Meanwhile, Americans have given short shrift to what is happening to the 97% of the population that is allowed to marry, but increasingly opts not to do so.

Complete essay at CNN

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ORIGINAL: njlauren

Whether gays are 3%, 5%, or 10%, the fact is, allowing them to marry has zero to do with straight marriages, zero to do with out of wedlock births, and is unlikely to cause any kind of problems, other then in the religious droolers empty brain pans. In actuality, they aren't trying to deny gays the right to marry per se, it has nothing to do with God striking us down, the real reason they fight it is because they see this as government saying gays are the same as straights, and they don't want that, they want to use the government to make gays second class citizens,deny them rights, to 'keep them in their place'..what they really fear is what has happened, people see same sex marriage in other states, scratch their heads and say "so? What's the big fuss? I am still married, my husband hasn't run away with Steve or Bruce, the world hasn't come to an end, so who gives a shit?" *lol*

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ORIGINAL: TricklessMagic

Let gays marry and adopt nationwide already. Marriage outside a church is a civil contract, if you don't think so ask a divorce attorney as in most states the divorce process follows many of the same procedures as a civil law suit. If a church wants to marry gays well that's their business as we are a nation of religious freedom. If religion can be used to prevent gay marriage then what else can it prevent, shudder at the thought of Sharia Law.

If folks want to have kids outside of marriage that's their business and their problem. I believe we need to address the disparities of government handouts for those who choose to responsibly have children versus those who irresponsibly have children. If it's all about caring for children than anyone regardless of their wealth should receive government handouts for their children, not just those whose education and lack of ambition somehow entitles them to free money for food stamps, free health insurance, and free daycare for their children. The simplest thing to do would be to give free handouts to everybody so we're all equal at that point, and equality is what it is all about after all, and then cap the amount of handouts as far as money and in a given year should the money run out, then no more handouts would go out that year.

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ORIGINAL: dcnovice

(a) Is marriage actually, as we often hear, in crisis? If so, how did it get there? And what are the solutions?

(b) If defending/preserving marriage truly is the goal for NOM et al., why not, as Frum suggests, focus on the straight folks who make up 97% of the population?

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ORIGINAL: erieangel

What's ironic is that many of the arguments same sex marriage were used against mixed race marriages back in the day. Those arguments were finally proven false once and I believe they will be proven false once again. Though Roberts is a conservative, he also knows precedent and he knows in what way the nation is heading. Even a Fox poll has more than 50% of the country favoring same sex marriage. And there is no logical legal reasoning for it to be banned. So Roberts will most likely vote with the liberals on the court in both cases. The question is how far will he and those liberals be willing to go?

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ORIGINAL: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/unmarry.htm
Percent of all births to unmarried women: 40.8%

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ORIGINAL: FunCouple5280

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ORIGINAL: njlauren

Whether gays are 3%, 5%, or 10%, the fact is, allowing them to marry has zero to do with straight marriages, zero to do with out of wedlock births, and is unlikely to cause any kind of problems, other then in the religious droolers empty brain pans. In actuality, they aren't trying to deny gays the right to marry per se, it has nothing to do with God striking us down, the real reason they fight it is because they see this as government saying gays are the same as straights, and they don't want that, they want to use the government to make gays second class citizens,deny them rights, to 'keep them in their place'..what they really fear is what has happened, people see same sex marriage in other states, scratch their heads and say "so? What's the big fuss? I am still married, my husband hasn't run away with Steve or Bruce, the world hasn't come to an end, so who gives a shit?" *lol*

Restated for truth