Rockway Institute In the News

Study: How Same-Sex Marriage Affects Gay Couples Social Work Today E-Zine October 30, 2008

A study conducted 13 months after same-sex marriage in Massachusetts became legal found that obtaining legal protections and making a public statement of commitment were the most often mentioned motivations for same-sex marriage. It also found that lack of family approval and difficulties planning and paying for the wedding were the most noted obstacles to marriage. The study was conducted by Pamela J. Lannutti, PhD, an associate professor of communication at Boston College, and was published in the Journal of GLBT Family Studies.

“The arrival of same-sex marriage brings up many issues that often lurk in the background in families. It forces same-sex couples and their parents to confront their deepest feelings about same-sex love,” says Robert-Jay Green, PhD, executive director of Rockway Institute, a national center for psychology research, education, and public policy on sexual orientation and gender issues

For this study, Lannutti’s sample of 263 partners in same-sex couples had an average relationship duration of 7.5 years. Seventy-two percent had gotten legally married in the 13 months after same-sex marriage became legal in Massachusetts, and 28% planned to marry within 16 months. Attractions to marriage listed by the respondents included legal protections (24%), making a public statement of commitment (20%), feelings for partner (15%), means to acknowledgement from family (14%), legal protection for help in having children (13%), means to acknowledgement from friends (8%), political reasons (4%), and religious reasons (2%).

Obstacles to marriage included lack of family approval (41%), difficulties in funding and planning the ceremony and reception (27%), philosophical or political objections to marriage (14%), the legal limitations of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts such as no federal recognition or benefits of marriage (10%), lack of approval from friends (4%), or unresolved previous relationships (4%). “Lack of family approval” usually meant parents’ approval, Lannutti reports

In commenting on the study, Green comments: “With the arrival of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts and now in California, we are just beginning to understand the psychological deprivation that has been imposed on lesbian and gay people, who have been excluded from marriage for centuries. Dr. Lannutti’s study supports what social scientists have long suspected—nothing short of marriage conveys the same multifaceted symbolic meanings nor evokes the same sense of hopefulness about finding life-long psychological intimacy in a relationship.”