Same-sex marriage rate lower than rate for straight couples, poll shows

Eric DuVall United Press International WASHINGTON (UPI) — Two years after the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling to legalize same-sex marriage, a smaller percentage of gay and lesbian couples are married compared to straight couples, a new survey shows.

Gallup’s poll showed 10.6 percent of adult same-sex couples are married, compared to 13.6 percent of adult heterosexual couples. Conversely, the percentage of same-sex couples who live with their partner but are not married is larger, at 6.6 percent, than that of straight couples, at 4.2 percent. Since the court’s decision in Obergefell vs. Hodges two years ago, the percentage of same-sex couples who are married has increased overall, though the rate by which it is increasing has slowed. Prior to the decision, when same-sex marriage laws varied by state, 7.6 percent of gay and lesbian couples were married. Based on data collected in the two years since the ruling, Gallup now estimates 61 percent of cohabitating same-sex couples are married, compared with 38 percent prior to the decision. Roughly half of respondents who identified as LGBT in the survey said they are bisexual. That high rate means LGBT individuals are slightly more likely to be married to a member of the opposite sex than a same-sex partner. The survey also showed gay men are slightly more likely than lesbians to be married to a same-sex partner. The data considered in the survey was collected from June 20, 2016 to June 19, 2017. It included 12,832 people who identified as LGBT. The poll has a margin of error of 1 percentage point.