"First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage ... Is Marriage Becoming Institutionalized Among Same-Sex Couples?" was the topic of University of Chicago Ph.D. sociology candidate Abigail Ocobock's research paper at the first-ever University of Chicago Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality ( CSGS ) symposium April 18.
Ocobock, a graduate student dissertation fellow at the CSGS, was among a number of fellows at the center who presented their work on a myriad of subjects related to gender and sexuality. This symposium provided a snapshot of each fellow's work and an opportunity for them to get feedback and answer questions from their peers.
The research question that Ocobock posed was: "How does gaining access to legal marriage impact gay men and lesbians couple, family and community relationships?"
Her study was conducted in 2012-2013 in Massachusetts and included 116 participants who were living with a same-sex partner. Both married and unmarried people participating in the study. Each participant filled out a survey and took part in an interview session where they were asked about all kinds of relationships—with their partners, their families, and their communities.
Ocobock's recruitment materials focused on getting participants who were in same-sex relationships regardless of what their views on marriage were. She chose Massachusetts couples because she wanted to see the results of legal same-sex marriage over time.
Since this research project is a work in progress, Ocobock is still in the process of analyzing the data and writing up her final draft. This talk was focused on a small part ( Massachusetts findings ) of a larger project that will include data from unmarried same-sex couples in Indiana where same-sex marriage is still illegal. Her research project aims to investigate how having access to legal marriage impacts same-sex couple's relationships in all areas of their lives.
Ocobock said that "most didn't marry for legal gains [although legal gains and protections are important] but rather decisions to marry were primarily about love and commitment." Respondents were asked if there was a divided the LGB community was about marriage and Ocobock shared that most of them said no. "Most of the unmarried couples said marriage was important and that they were likely to get married," said Ocobock. This suggested a high degree of institutionalization with regards to marriage among same-sex couples.
Younger couples in their 20s, 30s and 40s were more likely to express a desire to get married than their older counterparts, especially if the couples got together after same-sex marriage was legal, said Ocobock.
Ocobock explained that the ability to say husband or wife instead of partner or boyfriend/girlfriend empowered many of the married respondents to be out in all aspects of their lives. They got emotional when speaking about identifying their partner as "my wife" or "my husband". Some older participants did say they wouldn't use husband or wife due to historical reasons behind the use of those words, however, younger participants were more apt to use husband or wife, Ocobock shared.
In the area of family building, Ocobock noted that participants often told her marriage was important if the couple was planning to have children due to the added commitment, stability and legal protections that marriage affords families. Ocobock explained that just because marriage is important for couples who plan to have children it wouldn't necessarily prevent those couples from having children even if they lived in a state where same-sex marriage wasn't legal.
Ocobock's previous research on the subject of same-sex marriage ( she interviewed married gay men in Iowa in 2009, the year that same-sex marriage became legal there ) has been published in the Journal of Marriage and Family and can be found on her website.
See sites.google.com/site/abigailocobock/ for more information.
