New research shows that gay and lesbian couples are just as devoted in their relationships as straight people and that while being denied marriage or civil unions doesn't affect their happiness, it does diminish their likelihood of staying together, Reuters reported Tuesday.
In two new studies published in the journal Developmental Psychology, scientists compared same-sex and heterosexual couples and assessed their happiness. The first study, released by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, found that as the level of commitment increased, so did the ability to resolve conflicts, disproving the myth that gay couples are weaker than straight ones, according to the study.
"Among the committed couples, there were very few differences that we were able to identify either in terms of how satisfied these couples were, how effectively they interacted with one another, or how their bodies responded physiologically while they were interacting with one another," Glenn I. Roisman, one of the researchers, told Reuters.
A second study focused on whether the legal status of a relationship affected its quality. Researchers from the University of Washington, the University of Vermont, and San Diego State University concluded that gay couples -- with and without civil unions -- found their relationships more fulfilling than straight married couples. Same-sex couples without civil unions, though, were more likely to end their relationships.
"I think it's very hard to make the case, as has been made, that these same-sex relationships are fundamentally different from opposite-sex relationships in the presence of data like these and other data in the developmental literature," Roisman told Reuters.
No no no! Don't they understand? It doesn't matter whether they look happy, act happy, or tell you that they're happy--secretly, gay people are consumed by a soul-devouring inner anguish, because homophobes say they must be. How could they possibly find happiness in committed relationships with people they love, when the person they love has the same naughty bits? It's inconceivable! Everyone knows that love is a matter of the groin, not the heart.
And as for this whole claptrap about same-sex relationships being the same as opposite-sex relationships... well, who cares what a bunch of scientists say, with their data and their actual studies? Homophobes know that same-sex relationships are fundamentally different from opposite-sex relationships because both the people are men! Or sometimes, both are women! And, well, you can see... totally different!
I mean, if you don't have one man and one woman, how are they to know which one is supposed to be master of the household and lord himself over his better (yet inferior) half? You'd have two men trying both to be master over each other, or you'd have two women waiting for a big strapping man to tell them what to do! Anarchy!
Or so the homophobes tell me.
No comments:
Post a Comment