Marriage.

John St. John:

What do you guys think about the plan to force divorcing couples to go through a three month mandatory cooling off period after the divorce is filed in order to reduce divorce rates in the UK? Is it a good idea?

I'd be wary of that, personally. I don't think couples should be forced for statistics' sake, but offered a last ditch attempt at couples therapy or something, for free, sure. I would have thought the majority of couples have already thought long and hard about deciding to divorce, and it's obviously a hard and painful decision, so being forced to prolong that, especially if there are children involved or other exceptional circumstances, could be detrimental to people in the long run, whether the divorce was mutually agreed to in the first place, or not.

Deb:

Another thing: most states and countries disallow gay marriage. Does this mean that gay couples are automatically incapable of achieving that same "level of commitment, responsibility and maturity" simply because of this fact?

That's a very good point, and a strong one against people who disagree with gay marriage and don't want to see it happening. Because so much emphasis is placed on those things with regards to being a married couple, and it's so wrong for people to say that because of the gender someone's attracted to, they can't possibly be capable of them.