Comments on: D.C. Has Lowest Marriage Rate In Nation, Largest Percentage of Same-Sex Couples

By: Washington, D.C. Named Healthiest City in the U.S. | PhysiqueSpeak

Washington, D.C. Named Healthiest City in the U.S. | PhysiqueSpeak — Wed, 26 May 2010 21:25:51 +0000

[...] age than any other city in the country, so youth may have something to do with their ranking! The city also has the lowest marriage rate. Hmm! Maybe people are staying fit to attract a [...]

By: Dating in DC...your thoughts?? - Washington, DC - Page 3 - City-Data Forum

Dating in DC...your thoughts?? - Washington, DC - Page 3 - City-Data Forum — Wed, 19 May 2010 00:36:12 +0000

[...] D.C. Has Lowest Marriage Rate In Nation, Largest Percentage of Same-Sex Couples D.C. Has Lowest Marriage Rate In Nation, Largest Percentage of Same-Sex Couples - The Sexist - Washi... [...]

By: Rev. Starlene Burns

Rev. Starlene Burns — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:44:28 +0000

DC has a low number of marriages because of the once upon a time blood test requirements. Many people were having private ceremonies in MD and VA and then their big bang wedding (bypassing the requirements for marriage) in DC. With that being said, I wonder how DC are getting their stats, other than from the DC marriage licenses.

By: Comrade Al Gonzales

Comrade Al Gonzales — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:44:32 +0000

Well done, Laura. I had worked out the same formula, roughly, in my mind before I saw your post. In 2000, there were roughly 269,000 men in DC & 302,000 women, almost the same as your ratio (122:100) predicted.

http://www.nationalatlas.gov/articles/people/IMAGES/gender-tbl1.gif

By: MSH

MSH — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:58:26 +0000

Straights may not marry in DC, but they continue to have sex and produce children. DC has the highest percentage of out-of-wedlock births. This article would be better if it made note of that trend and its correlation with race.

By: Cracked like the Liberty: Wedding Bells in DC? « Bright | Young | Thing

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 01:57:59 +0000

[...] Why? Oh, thanks Newsweek. (Also, thanks for making me the 6th Estate.) [...]

By: Kwame Brown Didn’t Like Newsweek’s “Apartheid” Reference, Either - City Desk - Washington City Paper

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:15:55 +0000

[...] as D.C.’s “dirty secret” in a post in Newsweek about race, class, and the city’s low marriage rate, At-large Councilmember Kwame Brown has weighed [...]

By: D.C. Marriage Rate Lowest in U.S.

D.C. Marriage Rate Lowest in U.S. — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:01:03 +0000

[...] City Paper’s Amanda Hess cites a Pew survey finding that “Only 23 percent of women and 28 percent of men and in D.C. [...]

By: Marie

Marie — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:59:01 +0000

I see why the author would like to draw correlation between the studies but to suggest that this marriage equality bill in D.C. is going to increase marriage is a far-fetched one. Let's all be honest, the majority of that unmarried population are couples that are living together. If the focus is building up marriage in D.C., there is a greater number of unmarried families living out there that could benefit from bills and social implements to get them in marriages. This would also benefit the kids who statistically do better in school and life when they have married not just cohabitating parents.

By: D.C.’s “Dirty Secret”: Rule by Apartheid? - City Desk - Washington City Paper

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:41:39 +0000

[...] on the nature of race and class in D.C. after City Paper’s Sexist, Amanda Hess, blogged about why the District has the lowest marriage rate in the nation. Among them: This city is ruled by [...]

By: A

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:41:54 +0000

Looking at the Pew map, I found it amusing that many Red States, such as Wyoming, have a much higher rate of people who are currently divorced and who have been married three of more times that states like California. Not all of those respondents can be Republican congressmen, so what's going on? I thought those of us on the coasts were the ones destroying the 'institution of marriage'.

By: Counting DC as a State Leads to Overblown Assumptions » We Love DC

Counting DC as a State Leads to Overblown Assumptions » We Love DC — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:59:49 +0000

[...] led the Washington City Paper and Newsweek to jump to various conclusions: that DC is home to educated lefties who wait to get [...]

By: adams morgan girl

adams morgan girl — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:09:38 +0000

I'm wondering if there is any correlation between a large LGBT community and the likelihood of heterosexual couples marrying?

By: joan

joan — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:00:54 +0000

DC is pouring tax dollars into a front group for the Nation of Islam called the Wedded Bliss Foundation ostensibly to promote marriage.

By: ‘No Trust’ In DCPS Contract Talks: Loose Lips Daily - City Desk - Washington City Paper

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:02:33 +0000

[...] Monday, WCP’s Amanda Hess reported that according to a Pew study, D.C. has the lowest marriage rate in the country when compared to states (always a dubious endeavor). ‘Only 23 percent of women and 28 percent [...]

By: DC Has Lowest Marriage Rate In The Nation | UrbanPetersburg - Newstalk 1240

DC Has Lowest Marriage Rate In The Nation | UrbanPetersburg - Newstalk 1240 — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 01:35:47 +0000

[...] over at the Washington City Paper, sex and gender blogger Amanda Hess picked upan interesting nugget from Pew’s latest research into the state of American marriage. She [...]

By: Black Info.Net - African American News Hub | Black Info.Net

Black Info.Net - African American News Hub | Black Info.Net — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:49:21 +0000

[...] over at the Washington City Paper, sex and gender blogger Amanda Hess picked up an interesting nugget from Pew’s latest research into the state of American marriage. She [...]

By: Washington D.C. Has Lowest Marriage Rate In The Nation | News One

Washington D.C. Has Lowest Marriage Rate In The Nation | News One — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:33:45 +0000

[...] over at the Washington City Paper, sex and gender blogger Amanda Hess picked up an interesting nugget from Pew’s latest research into the state of American marriage. She [...]

By: K

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:50:18 +0000

Oh.

By: Laura

Laura — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:53:06 +0000

K - The reason 28% of men can be married to 23% of women is because there are more women than men in DC. Let's assume a population of 100 men. If 28% of them are married, that means there are 28 married men. In that same population, in order to get to an equal number of married women (28), the population of women must be 122 (122 * 23% = 28). Hope that helps.

By: Amanda Hess

Amanda Hess — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:44:13 +0000

The reason that D.C. appears to have a higher gay population than anywhere else in the country is that the District (a city) is being compared to states, not other cities. The marriage percentages and gay population figures are probably correct, but we're still comparing apples to oranges, which is the subject of this post.

By: ludwig

ludwig — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:18:44 +0000

Nnow what happened to San Francisco and California as having the highest gay population? This study must be flawed in some way---just because someone is NOT married (such as the late Strom Thurmond who did not get married until his late 70s and then started a family) does not mean that those in Washington, D.C. are gay. Many folks who have top executive positions do not marry ( let alone have time for most social activities not geared to business) because they are too busy with their jobs.

I might concede Washington after Fort Lauderdale, Fla.and Asheville, North Carolina being the third most heavily populated cities of gay people in the US AFTER New York---but Washington ---hardly. Incidentally, ladies---Ashville, North Carolina has the most gay women on the East Coast per city and if my observations are correct---a very large population also of gay men.

If this study is VALID then it is time that Congress should get off their duffs, get with reality and legalize same sex marriages since Congress is essentially the City Council of Washington and the City can not do most things without Congress's approval. The present state of affairs is the same as it was for the issue of Slavery back in the early 19th century. The Southern Newspapers from the 1830-1840 era are full of the same kinds of anti-abolitionists arguments as todays attitudes are anti-gay, anti-same sex marriage.

When will people be more tolerant of the full freedoms aspired to in our Consititution be made a full reality and discrimination against people because of their race, color, marital status, age, religion et al be made a daily factual reality when no one discriminates on the foregoing horrid bigoted principals?

By: Amanda Hess

Amanda Hess — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:16:23 +0000

K, you are seriously testing my very limited quantitative abilities here. But let's try it: One would think that, since women in D.C. get married an average of two years earlier than men do, that MORE women than men would be married in the District. In fact, the marriage gap between men and women in D.C. is much wider than in most U.S. states. My theory is this: Women get married younger than men, but men also die younger than women do. According to this 2006 report, D.C. has one of the lowest life expectancies in the nation. It's quite possible that in a place like D.C., the life expectancy gap between men and women is even greater, as the factors that cause men to die earlier are more pronounced here. According to this study, women begin to outnumber men in the general population beginning at age 30. By age 60, the population difference is striking. When married men die, they're taken out of the marriage study sample, but their wives remain in the study---they just convert back to "unmarrieds."

By: K

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:49:23 +0000

Maybe I'm being slow today, but what happened to the 5% of women that some of the 28% of men are married to? Do they live in "kept woman" apartments in NoVA? Are 5% of women lying to the Pew statisticians about being single in order to pick them up? Or are those men married... to GHOSTS?! I may be behind the times, these things change so fast, but I thought that to count as "married", you had to have someone to be married *to*?

By: Victor

Victor — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:40:09 +0000

I personally find it very pleasant. I was stuck in the midwest for years, where everyone my age was married and had children. In DC, it seems the people that want to go and do that get shipped off to VA or MD leaving the rest of us to enjoy our lives.

By: Amanda Hess

Amanda Hess — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:35:04 +0000

I think you may just have to go to Clarendon. Really sorry about that.

By: NWtoSE

NWtoSE — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:24:05 +0000

This study did not mention all of the men and I guess women as well that are MARRIED TO THEIR JOBS. I can't fight anymore with trying to date a guy when he is really in love with his government job and GETTING ahead at all costs. DC makes it seem wrong to want to get married and I am a feminist for heavens sake- and my choice is that I would like to be in a LONG TERM RELATIONSHIP leading to MARRIAGE. Is it is too much to ask for? (don't be too harsh with the reply comments- I can handle the personal attacks if they come LOL) I just love DC though. . . Did I totally comment off topic????

By: Leland Traiman

Leland Traiman — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:19:04 +0000

Domestic Partners was invented by a gay couple, Tom Brougham & Barry Warren, in 1982 and advanced by lesbian and gay organizations to obtain the benefits of marriage when most lesbians and gay men viewed marriage as a discredited patriarchal institution.
"Marriage equality" will only exist when we have all of the rights of marriage, both federal and state, regardless of how those rights are labeled, marriage or domestic partnerships. Therefore, DC's marriage bill will not insure equality for all. Marriage equality does not exist anywhere in the US and, given our activists' obsession with the word rather than the rights, it will not happen for a long time to come.
Additionally, doing away with domestic partnerships, as this bill suggests is anti-choice.

By: Sean Cronin

Sean Cronin — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:58:58 +0000

Does that mean AshleyMadison.com gets no illicit love in the District?

By: creativemeat

creativemeat — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:31:12 +0000

It's good practice to not only compare DC statistics with other States, but to also find city-level data and compare DC's data with other cities.

So your title is a bit misleading since we don't know if DC has the lowest marriage rate compared to other cities.

By: Joe Mustich, JP

Joe Mustich, JP — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:48:02 +0000

It's time DC.

Cheers, Joe Mustich, Justice of the Peace,
Washington, Connecticut, USA

All summer long I officiated for same-sex couples who came to CT to wed from all across the country. Congrats to all.

And kudos to CT for supporting marriage equality.