Well, Duh: New Study Finds Marriage Equality Didn’t Ruin Society

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Before the nationwide legalization of marriage equality in 2015, homophobes loved to claim that letting “the gays” marry would diminish the institution of marriage and, thereby, destroy society.

But a new report found what queer people always knew all along: The sky did not fall. In fact, the legalization of same-sex marriage has actually increased marriage rates overall.

The report finds that since Massachusetts became the first state to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in 2004, the number of marriages has increased across the board. Among cisgender, heterosexual couples, rates of matrimony ticked up by one to two percent — a modest but notable increase. When factoring in LGBTQ+ partners, marriages increased by a more robust 10%. (However, the vast majority of couples, both queer and not, remain unmarried.)

The research was conducted by the University of California, Los Angeles and the nonprofit group RAND by reviewing 96 studies about the effects of marriage equality published over the past two decades. “We find no evidence for a retreat from marriage,” Melanie A. Zaber, a lead author of the report, said in a press release. Her co-author, Benjamin R. Karney, concluded similarly: “Overall, the fears of opponents of same-sex marriage simply have not come to pass.”

While resulting in more marriages overall, the legalization of marriage equality has also had a major positive impact on LGBTQ+ couples’ quality of life, as the report notes. Marriage grants U.S. citizens more than 1,000 unique privileges not afforded to unmarried partners. These include the ability to file taxes jointly and accessing their partner’s health insurance to granting individuals the right to make decisions about their spouse’s care during a health emergency.

Legalizing same-sex marriage had even broader benefits outside of the legal and political arena, according to researchers. The report found that marriage equality positively impacted the physical health of the queer community as a whole, with rates of HIV/AIDS and syphilis falling as marriage rights were expanded. Meanwhile, multiple studies have found that married same-sex couples report lower psychological distress than unmarried same-sex partners.

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