Social Problems 10/22/2012 Inquiry Assignment 4

Marriage, Cohabitation, and Same-Sex Marriage In the article Marriage, Cohabitation, and Same-Sex Marriage written by Antony W. Dnes it discusses and explores the aspects of marriage and cohabitation as well as same sex marriage as the title suggests. In the introduction of the article the author asks what he considers a question that is heated internationally, Does the extension of marriage rights to homosexual cohabitants have any merit? to which he takes a look into the marriage and cohabitation to answer. The author talks about how he examined marriage and found that heterosexual couples are increasingly opting to not married but instead live together or cohabitate as, opposed to their homosexual counterparts who are prohibited from marring. He states that he thinks that excluding homosexuals from marring is more functional than discriminatory because the nature of marriage is not accidental but provides safe guards for the married, and to alter, marriage laws to include homosexual couples is likely to affect previously established groups.

The author then provides some background information on some international trends that he says could be helpful like how some European Union states are taking steps to treat the domestic partnerships of homosexuals more like marriages in areas like property rights and pension. He also mentions how some states like Connecticut and California have tried to ban same-sex marriage which was backed up by the government in the Protection of Marriage Act and how unlike the Europeans they are planning to dissolve domestic partnerships. He then goes into contrasting legal position of cohabitants and spouses tells of certain cases that he found relevant to the article and also talks about common-law marriage laws, common-law marriages are marriages between people who have been cohabiting for a certain amount of years without legally getting marriage but are still seen are seen as married to the government. The article also give examples of countries such as Canada, Australia, and New Zealand who have allowed some divorce like settling to these types of common-law marriages and cohabitations when the couples break-up. The author goes on to give more of his opinions and cite papers, cases, laws, and what happens in other countries concerning to marriages and cohabitation by both homo & hetero sexual couples, he even adds more information about divorces and divorce rates as well. He goes on to conclude the article by discussing the differences in straight and gay cohabitation but saying he does not see much difference in them and that he thinks also thinks that it should all be the same. This article pertains to what we learn in social problems because it talks about the trends of cohabitation and also talks about different

types of marriage including same-sex and common law marriages. The article also speaks on the decline of traditional marriage which is considered a social problem as well as the rise of cohabitation which we learned about this semester. The article also addresses same-sex marriages a lot which is a hot button social problem in this country.

Works Cited Dnes, A. W. (2007). Marriage, Cohabitation, and Same-Sex Marriage. Independent Review, 12(1), 1-14.