Federal government is funding a $5 Million media campaign that extols the virtues of marriage

[FreeState]

http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/1446134,CST-NWS-marriage24.article

The average age at first marriage is almost 26 for women and 28 for men. A growing percentage of Americans aren't marrying. Federal statistics report 7.1 marriages per 1,000 people in 2008, down from 10 per 1,000 in 1986.

Faced with such numbers, the federal government is funding a $5 million national media campaign, launching this month, that extols the virtues of marriage for 18- to 30-year-olds. The campaign includes ads on Facebook and MySpace, videos on YouTube, spots on radio talk shows, ads in magazines and public transit and a new Web site, TwoOfUs.org.

"We're not telling people, 'Get married,' but, 'Don't underestimate the benefits of marriage,' " said Paul Amato, a Pennsylvania State University sociologist and adviser to the federally funded National Healthy Marriage Resource Center, which is spearheading the campaign.

Research suggests benefits for those who marry: better health, greater wealth, more happiness and improved well-being for kids.

So as a gay American why do I have to pay for promotion of something that is denied to me? Why should anyone have to pay for such things?

[Donnachaidh]

1. I don't want to pay for this crap. Period.

That five mil used for this crap should be used for a media campaign to promote universal healthcare.

[FreeState]

5. Healthcare, mortgage crisis, you name it - it is better spent money than this n/t

[Kansas Wyatt]

2. As long as they don't leave out the cost of a divorce lawyer.n/t

[notadmblnd]

3. Now there's five million that could be spent on better things.

marriage, it's highly over rated.

[BattyDem]

4. So let me see if I understand this ...

They're going to spend $5 million to try to convince people who obviously don't want to get married yet (or ever), that marriage is wonderful ... but they continue to deny marriage rights to millions of couples who DO want to get married?!?

:wtf:

This is a major slap in the face to the gay community! Not only are their tax dollars being used to encourage something they can't do, but it rubs salt in the wounds by saying "don't underestimate the benefits of marriage" ... you know, those benefits that YOU can't have!

:wow: :banghead:

I'm ashamed that my tax dollars are being used to promote benefits that many of my fellow Americans don't have access to and I'm pretty ticked off that any money is being used for this at all. I just want to say to the government, "Mind your own f*cking business! If people want to get married they will! In the mean time, millions of Americans don't have food or shelter or health care. Use the $5 million to help them! :grr:

[Alias Dictus Tyrant]

6. What a waste of money

The government should get out of the marriage business. It is not as though this kind of milquetoast propaganda is solving anything. At best, it is perpetuating an arguably pointless social norm that does not need any more advertising than it already gets.

But then again, this is just one of a myriad of pointless and arguably wrong propaganda programs the government has been pushing for ages.

[MISSDem]

7. I think that if you are going to have children you should be married.

Otherwise, I could not care less. And by the way I think that anyone who wants to be married should be able to do so, ie, I believe in same sex marriage. It is a proven fact that children do better in a household with two parents. I don't know that it matters what the genders are.

[FreeState]

9. It does not matter what sex the parents are - your correct

American Academy of Pediatrics

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/109/2/341

A growing body of scientific literature demonstrates that children who grow up with 1 or 2 gay and/or lesbian parents fare as well in emotional, cognitive, social, and sexual functioning as do children whose parents are heterosexual. Children’s optimal development seems to be influenced more by the nature of the relationships and interactions within the family unit than by the particular structural form it takes.

[jwirr]

8. So who passed this law and when was it passed. *ss & co? nt

[FreeState]

10. Bush - passed in 2006

http://www.urban.org/Pressroom/otherevents/vsmarriagegovt.cfm

The decline in marriage and two-parent families continues to complicate efforts to reduce child poverty. In 2006, the Bush administration proposed and Congress approved funding for a Healthy Marriage Initiative (HMI) that will include marriage education, training, mentoring, and advertising. In this lively debate, two experts discuss whether it is the federal government's business to spend taxpayer money on marriage counseling for the poor.

[ikojo]

11. This is the "change" we voted for in

November?