Conversation: 'So, when are you going to get married?'

Article on New Jersey couples features author Mary Bernstein (The Marrying Kind?)

bernstein_cover“Over time, I think the marriage rates between same-sex couples and heterosexual couples will even out,” said Mary Bernstein, a sociology professor at the University of Connecticut who has been studying LGBT issues for years. “I think the divorce rates probably will as well.”

Looking ahead, legalization is most meaningful for younger gay and lesbian people, who can now grow up knowing that marriage is a possibility, said Bernstein, who recently co-edited “The Marrying Kind? Debating Same-Sex Marriage within the Lesbian and Gay Movement.”

“For a lot of same-sex couples, particularly for couples who have been together for a while, they’ve already organized their lives and organized their lives in the context of discrimination,” Bernstein said.

Those couples already own houses together, are each other’s life insurance beneficiary, etc., she said.

“For those people who are more established, they say, ‘We’ve been together, everybody knows of us as a couple, why would we get married all of a sudden?’” Bernstein said.

Read the full article.

Published in: NorthJersey.com
By: Kara Yorio