Mary Bernstein, a sociology professor at the University of Connecticut, suggests that marriage patterns for gay couples will eventually mirror those of heterosexual couples.

"Initially, we're going to see very large numbers of same-sex couples getting married. We have almost a bottleneck of couples who have been together five, 10, 15 or 20 years who have not been allowed to get married," she says. "Then I expect long-term, those numbers will level off and begin to resemble the numbers in the heterosexual population."

"There's a great push to marry because the symbolic value of marriage is so strong. Marriage in the United States is a very exalted form of relationship," says Bernstein, co-editor of the book The Marrying Kind? Debating Same-Sex Marriage within the Lesbian and Gay Movement, published in April.

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