then why does Massachusetts have the lowest divorce rate in the entire country?

It's been five year since Massachusetts recognized marriage equality, long enough to actually get some data on its effects (if any)

Before I go on, let's have a quote-a-thon:

"Homosexuals are not monogamous. They want to destroy the institution of marriage. It [ same-sex marriage ] will destroy marriage. It will destroy the Earth." – James Dobson, Focus on the Family, October 2004 speaking at a rally for OK GOP Senate candidate Tom Coburn

"This is only the beginning, if we allow this [ same sex marriage ] to happen we will, in effect, have destabilized the basic institution of our society, which is marriage between a man and a woman" – Brian Camenker, President of the Parents' Rights Coalition, as quoted by MassNews, March 2000

"There is a master plan out there from those who want to destroy the institution of marriage." – Senator Wayne Allard (R-CO) during the July 2004 U.S. Senate debate on the "Federal Marriage Amendment".

"The sexual revolution led to the decoupling of marriage and procreation; same-sex 'marriage' would pull them completely apart, leading to an explosive increase in family collapse…." – Charles Colson, Christianity Today, June 2004

"Marriage is the union between a man and a woman is a truth known to each one of us already, and any attempt to allow same-sex marriages is a detriment to the family unit and hurts our state and nation." – Texas Governor Rick Perry, in an August 2005 mass email to supporters

Let's see how that destruction-of-marriage thing is coming along.

The CDC compiled divorce data state by state and recently released it… you can read it here (PDF) The data covers 2000-2007, so you have about 3 years of data where gay marriage was legal in Massachusetts.

The upshot?  Massachusetts still has the lowest divorce rate in the country.  In fact it went down from 2.5 in 2004 to 2.2 the folling year (after gay marriagees were allowed). Provisional data from 2008 indicates that the Massachusetts divorce rate has dropped from 2.3 per thousand in 2007 down to about 2.0 per thousand for 2008. (For comparison purposes, the current rate for North Carolina is twice as large: 4.0 per thousand people, and the national rate is 7.3).

So what does this mean? To get a sense of perspective consider that the last time the US national divorce rate was 2.0 per thousand (people) was 1940.

Hmmm.  And you would think that conservatives would love things being like they were in 1940.