Heterosexuals: maritally retarded?

Lucky straight people get government handouts to learn how to love each other. But a mere queer like myself as to figure it out without a dime's worth of help. That's OK, I think I've got the hang of it. But is George Bush and his conservative pals saying that heterosexuals are romantically challenged, sort of martially retarded as it were. Poor dears.

It is a mixed group, this premarital class at the Phoenix First Assembly of God. Some are members of the church, but most are not. Some have their weddings planned, while others are just beginning to explore the idea of marriage. Most are middle class, but some are eligible for a subsidy through the state welfare program, which has budgeted $1 million for initiatives to promote marriage — much as President Bush proposes to do, to the tune of $1.5 billion, in the welfare re-authorization bill. ...

For several years, states have experimented with ways to use money from the Federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program to promote marriage. West Virginia pays a $100 monthly bonus to married welfare recipients. Oklahoma, like Arizona, has appropriated money for marriage education, and has even hired a pair of marriage experts to hold "relationship rallies" around the state.

Tamar Lewin, New York Times: Programs Try Down-to-Earth Aid for Marriages