WHY DO YOU THINK THAT GAYS DON’T ENTER INTO LASTING RELATIONSHIPS AS MUCH?
Could it be that there are no incentives? Could it be that because of denying gay people the same rights that every heterosexual has to marry and raise children has something to do with it?
I was once on a gay cruise where I met a very charming couple. Two lesbians in their eighties; they told me that they went on this cruise to celebrate their 60th year together and because one of them had terminal cancer. You couldn’t tell which one as they were both spry and very chirpy. But it got me to thinking: how admirable it is to see either men or women in committed relationships that have outlasted the bigotry, have endured untold discrimination and have succeeded in 
prevailing over all the odds.
In my lifespan I have seen extremes of discrimination and atrocities committed against the gay community. When I lived in Los Angeles in the 60’s I was very much aware of the police going into gay bars and arbitrarily raiding and arresting everyone in the joint. You could not go into the bathroom of a gay bar back then because the minute you unzipped your pants and pulled out your dick the handcuffs would follow. They would send in all these real good looking homophobic officers undercover and they would follow patrons into restrooms for the whole purpose of arresting them. It was their word against ours.
Gays became wiser and they would then go to the restroom four or five together so that there was no possibility of being arrested. The police 
then changed their tactics: they would strategically place squad cars around the gay bars in the street and the moment a patron got out and got in his car they would arrest him for DWI.
Then Stonewall happened and things began to change. Gays in America realized that they not only had the power to organize and have an impact but also that they were, because of their affluence, a force to be dealt with. The purchasing power of the gay community certainly gives some corporations a lot of incentives to treat the gay community right.
There were other very significant events that brought LGBT issues center stage like the horrible hate crime murder of Matthew Sheppard and the assassination of Harvey Milk and Mayor Mosconi of San Francisco. They became icons and symbols of the gay community struggle. But there have been thousands of hate crimes and murders across the nation in the ensuing years; most of which have gone unpublicized and relegated to obscurity.
The logical steps for these corporations was to not only sponsor gay events, parades, floats, socials but also to offer gay employees 
benefits that a decade before would have been unthinkable. There were partner health benefits, and other perks that corporations saw fit to offer because the gays were an integral and valuable part of their workforce.
The forward strides were not met without resistance; there was Anita Bryant in Florida and the Rev. Jerry Falwell nationally. Both were unreasonable alarmist homophobes and a whole bunch of others that publicly expressed their bigotry and hatred.
At the time all this was happening, demographics began to change as well and the older folks who held these homophobic views together with the Fundamentalist Christians and Morons Mormons began to form part of a minority. The younger set is totally flabbergasted that these anti gay sentiments even exist…to them it is not an issue. The progressives and liberals have also had their hands in bringing about some acceptance because they see it as a civil rights issue.
Robin Tyler, left, and Diane Olson lean on each other during their same-sex Jewish wedding ceremony on the steps of Beverly Hills Courthouse, Monday June 16, 2008, in Beverly Hills, Calif. Dozens of gay couples were married Monday after a historic ruling making California the second state to allow same-sex nuptials went into effect. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)
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