The "for thousands of years" bit, I believe - in Ryan's case, is related to the teachings of Jesus regarding marriage as outlined in the New Testament. (Which supposedly occured a couople thousand years ago). (I understand Ryan is a strict Catholic)
I'm copying this from another source for expediacy:
"And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?"
He answered them, "What did Moses command you?"
They said, "Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away."
And Jesus said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female.' 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate."
And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. And He said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery."
Mark 10:2-11 (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%2010:2-11&version=47)
So, obviously, before you can ask for a divorce, you have to be married, since divorce is the negation of marriage. Jesus defined marriage as a male and a female leaving their parents, and joining together to become one flesh.
Pretty clear to me. He evidently didn't say "males" and "females" (plural).
I was talking about what Ryan said, not Moses or Jesus.
