We’re often told by the right-wing Catholics that marriage between two men is wrong, but a new study that claims that men in a same-sex marriage have less psychological distress would suggest that we’re doing something right.

A recent article in the New York Times references the study – “Marital Strain and Psychological Distress in Same-Sex and Different-Sex Couples” – which claims that women in different-sex marriages were the highest stress carriers. The study was conducted by authors Michael A. Garcia and Debra Umberson and aksed 756 midlife U.S. men and women in 378 gay, lesbian, and heterosexual marriages.

Meanwhile women in same-sex relationships and men in different-sex relationships fell in the middle; with the gays (M/M marriages) harboring the least stress.

Probably ’cause they’re having the most sex.

Which – while a joke – is actually outlined as one of the reasons; because M/M couples are more likely to structure their own rules around sex and nonmonogamy rather than adhere to a “tradition”. A common theme, which also suggested women are more likely to be stressed due to the traditional expectations of them in the relationship with regards to keeping the house and

It’s about time that people realised that ‘tradition’ is just peer pressure from dead relatives.

The article also suggests that gay couples spend more time with their children, mostly because the number of unwanted children is far lower. (Most gays who choose to adopt or surrogate do so because of their desire to have children, not because they forgot to wear a condom).

As Times columnist Stephanie Coontz writes, “many different-sex couples would have happier and more satisfying marriages if they took a few lessons from their same-sex counterparts.”