“When the Supreme Judicial Court handed down its landmark decision five years ago allowing same-sex couples to wed in Massachusetts, opponents warned that traditional marriage would be endangered, while supporters envisioned an equality movement that would spread across the nation. Over 11,000 same-sex marriages later, neither has happened. … Gay marriage rates leveled off at about 1,500 a year (about 4 percent of all state marriages) in 2006 and 2007. The divorce rate in Massachusetts has remained the same — the lowest in the country. And only one other state now allows same-sex marriage; 30 states have a ban against it. What’s really changed is more subtle than cosmic, more about the everyday lives of gay couples in Massachusetts than about a national transformation.” (11/17/08)