The Option of Marriage is Important for Same-Sex Couples: Survey

Most same sex couples, just like different sex couples, believe in marriage to bring in social legitimacy, legal benefits and financial protection, finds a survey that included participants from 47 states of the US, excluding Alaska, Idaho and South Dakota.

The survey showed 90% of the respondents felt that the option to marry was important to their relationship. While 91% of the respondents said legal marriage was important for legal benefits and financial protection, 36% said marriage was necessary for relationship legitimacy.

"The remarks about the legal benefits and financial protections are not surprising because we have heard so much about that from news interviews," said researcher Stephen Haas, associate professor of communication at University of Cincinnati.

"But that second category of relationship legitimacy - of having societal legitimacy - stood out to me. We received responses such as, 'My partner does not get invited on family vacations because we are not married. But if we were married, my partner would be invited'. So in the view of family origin, it was very important," Haas said.

The results were published online in the Journal of Homosexuality.

The survey also found that many same-sex couples view living together as significant because it symbolizes and solidifies their commitment to their relationship, possibly because marriage has never been an option.

The online survey included 526 individuals who reported they were in a committed, same-sex relationship for at least six months.

Source-IANS