To celebrate the five-year anniversary of marriage equality in Massachusetts, the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law collaborated with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and released the results of the Health and Marriage Equality in Massachusetts survey.
The survey addresses the main impacts of, and reasons for, same-sex marriage, said Naomi Goldberg, the Peter J. Cooper public policy fellow at the Williams Institute. The Williams Institute helped design the survey questions as part of its research related to the legal and policy issues associated with sexual orientation.
The survey was distributed to 38,210 households via e-mail, and the Williams Institute helped to analyze the responses of 558 individuals currently in a legal same-sex marriage. Goldberg said 61 percent of the respondents were women and most were in their 40s, highly educated and with a high median income.
The results showed that respondents generally agree that marriage renders family and community members more accepting and increases the level of commitment between partners, Goldberg said.
She added that 93 percent of respondents cited an important factor in the decision to marry as love and commitment, while 85 percent said it was legal recognition of their relationship.
“This underscores the need for rights,” she said.
Goldberg added that almost half of the respondents said they felt being married eased their worries about legal problems and that 30 percent received tangible benefits such as health insurance from marriage.
Fourth-year communication studies and sociology student Raffi Sarkissian, president of the Student Coalition for Marriage Equality, said the results seem accurate because he can see how being married raises the level of legitimacy and respect that same-sex couples receive.
“In California we do have legal rights, even though we don’t have a lot of the federal rights,” Sarkissian added. “To me, it’s more about dignity and respect in society than anything else. … Social justice is my motivation to win the fight.”
This survey was simultaneously released with two related surveys in celebration of the anniversary of marriage equality, Goldberg said. One looked at the percentage of same-sex couples in the highly educated “creative class” engaged in creating ideas, and the other analyzed the fiscal impact of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts.
Jack Glaser, an associate professor at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy, said he feels these types of surveys are very important given the controversy surrounding same-sex marriage and the point of marriage.
“It’s certainly valuable to know what same-sex couples are getting out of it,” he added.
Michael Steinberger, a public policy fellow at the Williams Institute and a professor of economics at Pomona College, said the study on fiscal impact, which asked about spending on weddings, allowed researchers to understand the economic consequences of same-sex marriage through surveys, interviews and state-level data on marriage revenue.
Counties in Massachusetts saw an increase in hotel room occupancy tax revenue from same-sex marriages to a level similar to revenue from different-sex marriages, Steinberger said.
“Now is the time to get a sense of the economic consequences,” Steinberger said. “Any time we make civil rights and public policy decisions, we should have a clear understanding of the costs and benefits. These studies are essential for understanding the entire picture.”