UK Gays Have Lower Divorce Rates Than Straights

Statistics out of the UK will likely cause some exploding heads amongst the Christofacists set and likely make Maggie Gallagher wet herself. Using the same time frame and tracking the dissolution of civil partnerships versus civil marriages in the UK, gay male couples have a split rate less than half that of straight couples. It would seem that gays - especially gay males - honor the sanctity of marriage more than heterosexuals. But then again, I guess that should be no surprise: evangelical Christians in the Bible Belt have the highest divorce rate. Andrew Sullivan has the details that confirm that gays have a lower divorce rate:

In Britain, they do, by quite a margin. There's some fascinating and counter-intuitive data that back it up (it's not apples to apples since civil partnerships do not carry the social status of civil marriages, but it's not far off, since British CPs are identical in rights to CMs.) But this is a striking result:

The most recent evidence from the UK Office of National Statistics finds that homosexual couples that joined in 2005 were significantly less likely to have filed for dissolution four years later than heterosexual couples were to have filed for divorce: 2.5% compared to 5.5%. As Hattersley points out, however, male couples were much less likely to dissolve their relationship than were female couples: By the end of 2010, 1.6 % of male civil partnerships had ended in dissolution compared to 3.3 % of female partnerships.

This data may shift again over time. But who predicted that gay marriages would have lower divorce rates than straight marriages? Not me. And who predicted that gay men would last longer in marriage than lesbians? No one. So the one thing Jesus insisted on in marriage - no divorce - is now best upheld by gay male marriages. (Cut to Gary Bauer's head exploding)