Gay marriages still growing, but not as fast

Barely 24 months after the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage, the number of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender adults who say they’re married to someone of the same sex has increased to more than 10%. But the rate of growth has slowed significantly since the first year.

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In the first year after the court’s Obergefell-Hodges decision, the number of reported same-sex marriages surged from under 8% to 9.6%. Today, a new survey by Gallup finds, the number is 10.2%.

It is still more likely that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans are married to an opposite gender partner (13.1%) than a same-sex partner (10.1%). But Gallup finds the gap narrowing.

Gallup also found that as the number of self-reported same-sex marriages increases, the number of same-sex domestic partners has declined — and rather sharply, from 12.8% to 6.6%.

Gallup attributes about half the decline in domestic partnerships to the growth in same-sex marriages. The rest, it states, can be terminated domestic partnerships or cohabitants who no longer consider their relationship a partner.

“As a result of these shifts,” the report claims, “Gallup estimates that 61% of same-sex, cohabiting couples in the U.S. are now married, up from 38% before the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in June 2015, and 49% one year ago.”

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The rate of marriage among older gays is higher than among younger ones. The survey reports that 9.3% of LGBT women say they are married to a same-sex partner, compared to 11.4% of LGBT men.

Results are based on daily tracking data from nearly 353,000 interviews from June 20 last year to June 19 this year. Gallup first began asking gays, who said they were married or in a partnership, the gender of their spouse or partner in January of 2015..

Gallup estimates the number of same-sex marriages will continue to grow as younger gays mature in an age more socially accepting of same-sex marriage and as their economic situations improve as careers develop.

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