[visualops]

For purposes of critiquing this study, though, let's say that she's of an average age when the study took place -- perhaps 40. Let's say that her first four relationships lasted 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, and a year. Her marriage is 14 years long at the time of the study. That makes her average RELATIONSHIP 2.75 years long, or not so very different from the average relationship of those gay people in the study. This is why it makes no sense to compare "relationships" to "marriages" in such a study. The research on this issue is pretty low quality.

It is absurb to take a few short relationships, and one very long one, and say that compares with a lifetime of short relationships.
Fact is, long term gay relationships are not common, or they'd have no problem providing examples, as the gay community itself would be an example.

[Kahonek]

"It is absurb to take a few short relationships, and one very long one, and say that compares with a lifetime of short relationships."

It is much more absurd to compare two groups of people, selecting only the longest relationships from one, and comparing them to the AVERAGE (combining long and short) relationships of the other, which is what was done in this study comparing straight marriages to gay relationships. My point was not that all gays have long and monogamous relationships. My point was that this is a crappy study.

"Fact is, long term gay relationships are not common, or they'd have no problem providing examples, as the gay community itself would be an example."

They've generally got no problem providing examples (note some of the recent court cases on the topic). There are plenty of long-term gay couples, most of them lesbian (gay men don't seem to fare as well). However, you can't draw a lot of conclusions from mere examples. It sure seems likely that there are fewer long-term monogamous gay couples than straight couples, but you shouldn't use this study to make that point.