What Difference Does Marriage Make? Life Course Trajectories and the Transition to Marriage for Gay Men and Lesbians

Abstract

Research on same-sex marriage has suggested that the transition to marriage is a symbolically meaningful experience that significantly changes sexual minority lives. This chapter draws upon semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 28 married gay men and lesbians to examine how the life course trajectories they took en route to marriage shaped their experiences transitioning to marriage. A description of the short and direct and long and winding trajectories to marriage is provided. Subsequently, it is demonstrated that, although those who took the former report experiences much like those documented by research thus far, those who took the latter had smaller wedding ceremonies to which they attach relatively little meaning, and they report that getting married has done little to change their family relationships. These findings paint a more nuanced picture of the transition to same-sex marriage than has been documented to-date, and point to important directions for future research.

Citation

Hoy, A. (2023), "What Difference Does Marriage Make? Life Course Trajectories and the Transition to Marriage for Gay Men and Lesbians", Hernández, A.J.C. and Blair, S.L. (Ed.) Conjugal Trajectories: Relationship Beginnings, Change, and Dissolutions (Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research, Vol. 22), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 175-194. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1530-353520230000022009