Same-Sex Couples Take Advantage of Legal Recognition
New England Blade
By Zachary Violette
August 07, 2008

In the 11 states that offer same-sex couples marriage, civil unions, domestic partnerships or another legal status, more than 85,000 couples have taken advantage of these legal statuses, according to a study released last week by UCLA’s Williams Institute, which found that same-sex couples, when presented with the opportunity, jump at the chance to take advantage of it. The findings also shed new light on the current experience in California, where thousands of same-sex couples are reported to have already married.

“Marriage clearly gets the most enthusiastic response from same-sex couples, as we’re seeing in California,” explained co-author M. V. Lee Badgett, research director of the Williams Institute and director of the Center for Public Policy and Administration at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. “In Massachusetts, 37 percent of gay and lesbian couples got married within the first year that marriage was available, but only one in ten gay couples registered a civil union or domestic partnership in the first year after the introduction of those statuses.”

The study predicts that if every state offered marriage to same-sex couples today, approximately 370,000 couples would marry in the next three years. Last week, Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick signed a bill repealing his state’s 1913 law that prohibited out-of-state same-sex couples from getting married in Massachusetts if their home state would not recognize such a marriage. Over the next three years, thousands of couples from around the country are expected to get married in Massachusetts.

“Not only are same-sex couples getting legally partnered, but their relationships are just as stable as marriages of different-sex couples,” added co-author Gary Gates, senior research fellow of the Williams Institute. “Only 1 percent to 3 percent of same-sex couples dissolve their legal relationships each year, which is comparable to the 2 percent of those in different-sex marriages who divorce annually.”

The data also show that same-sex couples who marry or register are more likely to be female couples than male couples, and same-sex couples tend to be younger than existing different-sex married couples.