Look at the bright side. When gay couples break up, the poorer one will be able to claim common law marriage as a way to get palimony or alimony or a share of the “marital” property and gays will get dragged into the hellish, ugly division of marital property disputes that straight couples have all the time.
This gets nasty when you have roommates trying to claim the dead person’s SSI/SSDI benefits, having lived together for years and trying to trump the family’s rights to property.