Why do gay people divorce less than straight people do? Reddit has some deep thoughts…

Various studies have found that gay couples have lower divorce rates than their straight counterparts, and Reddit users think they know why.

As of 1997, for example, the divorce rate for gay couples in Denmark was 17 percent, compared to 46 percent for straight couples, according to Psychology Today. 

And in couples who got married in the Netherlands in 2005, 15 percent of marriages between two men had ended in divorce 10 years later, compared to 18 percent of heterosexual couples, according to the NL Times.

So what makes the difference? That’s what one Reddit user wanted to know in a recent Ask Gay Men thread. “Why do you think gay people divorce less than straight people?” that user asked.

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In the most-upvoted comment on the thread, Reddit user Brian_Kinney suggested four theories.

One, by the time gay couples could marry, they had already proved their long-term potential. (“If they were going to break up, it would have already happened,” Brian_Kinney explained.)

Two, marriage hasn’t been a societal expectation for the gays like it has been for the straights. (“Gay people who get married are more likely to actually want to get married, rather than be expected to get married.”)

Three, straight people are often compelled to get married because of an accidental pregnancy. (“Meanwhile, same-sex couples are much less likely to experience an accidental and/or unwanted pregnancy, and don’t have to get married because of that.”)

And four, because of gay people’s so-called “delayed adolescence,” they’re still sowing their wild oats while straights are settling down. (“So gay people are more likely to make better decisions about who to marry when they finally do settle down.”)

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And in other popular comments, different Reddit users shared their thoughts.

“Straight people never had to fight for marriage, so they are more likely to get married without much thought, as opposed to gay people, who are more likely to appreciate the privilege of marriage,” jimmy_the_angel proposed.

Redditor urCakeCrush, meanwhile, proposed that gay divorce rates are lower “because we actually talk to our partners… I am so thrown by how many straight couples seriously don’t talk about a lot of how they feel, what life desires they have, what fantasies they have… It’s crazy unhealthy. They hang on to what they believe their relationship should look like instead of creating a relationship that works just for them.”

And speaking of couples that set their own rules, Reddit user lifer027 theorized that we can give credit to open marriages and other arrangements in which “having sex with someone outside of the marriage isn’t an extinction-level event.”

If you have another theory about gay marriage longevity, the comment section is wide open below.

Speak now or forever hold your peace!

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