So, as I was reading about same sex relationships I came across several articles reporting lower divorces rates of same sex couples vs straight couples. Anybody have an explanation for this? It seems odd to me that there would be a significant difference of divorce rates, yet this seems to hold true. Your thoughts on this?
I was not aware this was true, but assuming that it is I think it makes sense for two reasons: 1) It's just sort of harder for gay people to get married--there are more roadblocks etc.--which would suggest the people who actually do it may be more committed to each other on average than the average straight couple. 2) While marriage is more and more common in the gay community I still don't think there is as strong of an expectation that you marry when you are out as gay. I think there are plenty of straight people who aren't really "the marrying kind" who get married anyway because it's what you do. I think there is more of a place in the gay community to not be the marrying kind, at all or just not yet. Again this would lead to a smaller number of people in marriages that eventually wouldn't work out. Nothing particular to go on--just my thoughts.
It's not surprising really. The sample size is smaller for one. I think also that subconsciously same-sex couples want to prove to society they can make it and work harder to stay together. It's also a more novel concept which might make it more successful? Not saying that as fact, just an idea.
My thought was that LGB people do not start dating until later in life due to coming out and this lowers the divorce rate. People who get married in their late teens early thirties are less likely to get divorced. I also think that same sex couples are less likely to have disagreements on certain things.
I know a lot of my straight friends seem to think that a gay relationship would be a lot easier than a straight one.:lol:
I would venture to state that same-sex marriage is too new and too infrequent to come to any firm conclusions as to their durability. How many same-sex marriages (or partnerships) are there that have lasted 10 or 20 years, or more? I would guess: not many. One can come up with a whole bunch of hypotheses that would suggest that same-sex marriages last longer, but we don't even really know that yet, and we will not know that for a long time with any reasonable degree of certainty. It's fun to speculate though...
According to these studies, they do have enough data to conclude that this is indeed true. I'll dig though my history and post it here.
Yeah, I think the struggle for marriage means more commitment + older age and maturity making them more ready for it.
My thoughts: same sex couples are usually together longer, which lets them be 100% ready for when they actually do get married so they can work out their problems more efficiently as a married couple. Interesting note: States that legalize same sex marriage have the divorce rate, gay and straight, go down. Another interesting note: Evangelical Christians have a higher divorce rate than the general population.
There are no reliable statistics on this, really. There won't be for some time given the novelty of same-sex marriage, and they'll be somewhat skewed for a while after they're even moderately reliable (thanks to varying dates of legalisation), so I'm not really willing to say that same-sex marriages last for more or less time than straight marriages. Stridenttube, would you be able to link those articles if they're available online?
