A beneficial cultural change, he Old Testament describe seven different marriage/family forms that were practiced in ancient Israel, in addition to the standard "one man-one woman" format . Marriage in North America has evolved in different ways over the past 16 decades: bullet Polygamous marriages were introduced in the 1840s and partly phased out in 1890. Many tens of thousands of couples still practice polygyny, mainly in the state of Utah and the Canadian province of British Columbia. They are almost never prosecuted. bullet Marriages by African-American slaves were banned in some U.S. states, and only permitted after the conclusion of the civil war. Inter-racial marriages were considered a criminal act in some states until 1958. bullet Same-sex marriages were unavailable until 2003-JUN-10 when they became legal in Ontario, and 2003-MAY-2British Columbia, Canada. The Massachusetts Supreme Court granted same sex couples the right to marry starting 2004-MAY-20. SSM became available across Canada on 2005-JUL-20. These four changes were painful experiences for some North Americans at the time. However, people were able to take the first three changes in stride. Canadians seem to have reacted to same-sex marriages with a collective yawn.

Equality always benefits society.

I never understood how allowing people to express their love legally was ever threatening to the legal institution of love- marriage.