Ajp thinks there is a feigned concern for children from the no vote:

Why doesn't the yes vote acknowledge that ssm can't even have children?

AJ Philips,

No, marriage needs active work, hard work from both individuals. Without self-control one is setting it up to fail. That hurts the other party and more victims where there are (thoughtlessly acquired) children.

Get your sh** sorted first and don't be relying on the other person, who also has her/his tasks in life, the challenges of his his/her own existential angst to handle.

We are born alone, live alone and die alone. Recognise that first and deal with it, getting our own values straight and resolving to control and to manage ourselves and to behave accordingly.

A philanderer or say a needy person, anyone immature, prior to marriage will be same after but worse and with more excuses and blaming, although Hollywood might have it otherwise on the flickering screen and then just for seconds.

Dear AJ,

You're absolutely right. People who are against
SSM because of children should then consider
banning marriages for all those hetero couples who
are marrying late in life and also those couples
who have no intention of having children. Gay couples
are having children, and already have children - by
either surrogacy, IVF, previous marriages, adoption,
and so on.

What is important to children's well being is not
simply who their birth parents are, but the quality
of the care, support, and security that they receive.
Research has increasingly shown that the quality of
children's relationships with their carers is what
affects children's lives and children's chances.

leoj,

That you think the fact that relationships need to be actively worked negates my claim, only demonstrates that you are still not grasping the difference between promoting stability and remedying dysfunction.

Promote:
Support or actively encourage (a cause, venture, etc.); (http://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/promote)

Remedy:
Set right (an undesirable situation) (http://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/remedy)

While marriage will do nothing to fix the problems in a relationship, it does promote stability insofar as it provides additional motivation (psychological, social, legal, financial, etc.) to work on the relationship before calling it quits.

Where children are concerned, one could also point to the fact that not discriminating against the parents of children of same-sex couples would reduce the stigmatisation of their families.

No matter which way one looks at it, children are not a reason to oppose same-sex marriage.

'What is important to children's well being is not
simply who their birth parents are, but the quality
of the care, support, and security that they receive.'

tell that to the stolen/rescued generation Foxy. Being taken from abusive parents certainly has not made them thankful in many cases.

Dear runner,

Perhaps because in those many cases their parents
were not abusive. And they would encounter abuse
where they were being taken.

Just a thought.