UK LGBT Marriages: Married Gay Couples Stronger than Lesbian Counterparts

Married lesbian couples are most likely to succumb to failed marriages and divorce more than their male, gay counterparts, analysis of figures released the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed.

In 2012, ONS data showed that the number of LGBT or same-sex couples dissolving their marriages jumped by 20 per cent. Of the 794 that filed for marriage dissolution, more than half or 60 per cent were female or lesbian couples.

The UK ratified LGBT civil unions as legal in 2005. Since then for the duration of seven years now, dissolved unions by gay couples were only 3.2 per cent, compared to lesbian couples which were at a whopping 6.1 per cent.

"This reflects trends in a heterosexual marriage because women are more prone to say they want to marry - but they're also more likely to initiate a divorce," Gunnar Andersson, a professor of demography at Stockholm University, was quoted by CQ News.

"Women usually have higher demands on relationship quality, that's often been said in studies. Even if you control for age there is still a trend of more women ending partnerships than men."

Such innate attitude runs in the female biological gamut. In fact, in 2011 in the UK, British women in heterosexual relationships were found to have been the aggressive initiators in two-thirds of divorce cases filed in the country.

"Culturally women have been more conditioned to be focused on marriage than men," Jane Czyzselska, editor of the lesbian magazine DIVA, said. "The stereotype of the lesbian couple who take a U-Haul on their second date, move in and get cats is there for a reason. Because of the cultural conditioning that we have, women do seem to be committing faster."