With all due respect to Michael Heath’s opinions and “ethical facts” in opposition to same-sex marriage and concern that “little boys and girls of the future” will need “one mommy and one daddy each, not two mommies or two daddies,” the following is about present-day girls and boys.

According to information from the U.S. Census Bureau, Americans for Divorce Reform and The Associated Press, 1.16 million divorces were granted in 1997. Three million married spouses were absent from their families, and 60 percent of all marriages that year ended in divorce. Roughly 3.8 million heterosexual couples are currently cohabitating. Fifty percent of first marriages still end in divorce. There are some 25 million divorced people in the U.S. today. In 1998, some 20 million children under the age of 18 lived with their 11.72 million heterosexual, single moms or dads. Four million more lived with their grandparents and a significant unknown number were placed with total strangers. The highest divorce rates in the country, nearly double the national average, are found in Bible Belt states.

Taxpayers continue to pick up the annual $9 billion tab for child support enforcement, domestic violence programs, child abuse and neglect, welfare benefits to dependent mothers and divorce court system costs. Married, same-sex couples bear no responsibility, whatsoever, for this continuing, monumental human and fiscal tragedy. Yet, theirs are the marriages some seek to ban in an effort to “sanctify” the institution of marriage and save the children.

Robert Lord, South Portland

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