New study: health benefits of marriage are unique to opposite-sex unions

This is from the blog of the National Organization for Marriage.

Excerpt:

A new study in the Journal of Epidemiology followed 6.5 million Danish persons for nearly 30 years (for a total of 112.5 million person-years) looking at how living arrangements (being single, cohabiting, married, widowed or in a same-sex union) affected their health outcomes.

From the official abstract:

“[Hazard Ratios] for overall mortality changed markedly over time, most notably for persons in same-sex marriage. In 2000–2011, opposite-sex married persons (reference, HR = 1) had consistently lower mortality than persons in other marital status categories in women (HRs 1.37–1.89) and men (HRs 1.37–1.66). Mortality was particularly high for same-sex married women (HR = 1.89), notably from suicide (HR = 6.40) and cancer (HR = 1.62), whereas rates for same-sex married men (HR = 1.38) were equal to or lower than those for unmarried, divorced and widowed men. Prior marriages (whether opposite-sex or same-sex) were associated with increased mortality in both women and men (HR = 1.16–1.45 per additional prior marriage).”

So, what do we learn? We learn that just slapping the label “marriage” onto gay couples doesn’t give them the same health benefits as natural marriage.

2 thoughts on “New study: health benefits of marriage are unique to opposite-sex unions”

  1. “This blogger believes that gender is a real and beautiful phenomenon. It is not a fluid aspect of our person that we “perform” (as some avant-garde activists suggest) or a social characteristic “no more important than the length of one’s neck,” as my queer friend puts it. Gender has a real and beneficial impact in all areas of our life- work, government, marriage, parenting, etc.” http://askthebigot.com/2013/06/14/marriage-is-good-for-you-and-its-not-just-the-commitment/

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