SSM Plebiscite

[crashlander]

It's a public acknowledgement that it's ok to be gay and married. The research quoted in the article makes that quite clear.

Is marriage a dying institution ? I'm not sure that it is, but I have no figures ready to hand.

I think you will find that entering marriage has not dropped: it is as popular as ever. However, the rate of marriage failures has never been higher. This is because some societies (like ours) no longer descriminate against it.
Marriages among Muslim and Hindus here still appear to have the same cutural stigma against them as they did back in Asia. Many marriages are marriages in name only, as the cultural pressure not to divorce is still overwhelming. That may not be the case forever.

People are taking longer to marry and many are marrying multiple times in their lives. This is quite new. Even a century ago people who married twice or thrice were rare as they only remarried after the death of a spouse..
It also appears that actors have higher rates of divorse and remarriage than the general population. This is especially the case in America, where 'celebreties' marraiges are usually terrifyingly short.