Revisiting Marriage and Physical and Mental Health Among Partnered Gay and Lesbian Adults: An Analysis of Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Data, 2014-2023.

Summary: Does getting married make you healthier? For a long time, experts thought it did. But a new study looked at 10 years of health data on gay and lesbian couples to see if being legally married made a difference compared to just living together. The result? Married and unmarried couples had mostly the exact same physical and mental health. The one big exception was married gay men, who showed much better mental health than unmarried gay men. Researchers think this might be because being officially married gives them a feeling of social acceptance. Overall, though, just having a ring on your finger doesn't automatically mean better health for gay and lesbian couples, possibly because of the unique stress they still face in society.