Are Gay Relationships Different?

Why gay couples have more equality and less tension at home--but still split up more often than straight pairs

Greg Miller for TIME

The author and his partner in 2003. Many assume that gay men are worse at maintaining relationships. That's partly true

Michael and I had been together 7 1⁄2 years when I moved out in late 2006. We met at a bar just after Christmas 1998; I had seen Shakespeare in Love with a couple of friends, and I was feeling amorous, looking for Joseph Fiennes. Michael hit on one of my friends first, but the two didn't click, so Michael settled for me.

That was one of our most reliable stories to tell friends over dinner. It never ceased to get the table laughing, Michael and me most of all, because it was preposterous to think we wouldn't have ended up...

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