chores

I have often wondered about the financial arrangements in heterosexual relationships. For instance: People combine their checking accounts? Are they crazy?

I mean, how are you supposed to buy each other gifts? How are you supposed to have any freakin' PRIVACY if you have to account for where every penny goes? Yargh!

Also, it squicks me out to think of someone else having control over my money. That is, besides the student loan people, the credit card people, the bank, the warmongering government, etc.

I know some same-sex couples share accounts, especially if they have kids or buy a house. I just don't know many.

And also: I loathe gender-divided chores. Far as I'm concerned, each person cleans, does dishes, empties the dishwasher, cooks, does laundry, tackles the basement and garage from time to time, gardens, etc. (Though I admit to preferring weeding to cutting back roses and dusting to sweeping the floor.) Anyway...

Apparently, I'm so, so right:

Notably, same-sex relationships, whether between men or women, were far more egalitarian than heterosexual ones. In heterosexual couples, women did far more of the housework; men were more likely to have the financial responsibility; and men were more likely to initiate sex, while women were more likely to refuse it or to start a conversation about problems in the relationship. With same-sex couples, of course, none of these dichotomies were possible, and the partners tended to share the burdens far more equally.

Also:

While the gay and lesbian couples had about the same rate of conflict as the heterosexual ones, they appeared to have more relationship satisfaction, suggesting that the inequality of opposite-sex relationships can take a toll.

Just one more reason to be gay. As if you needed another.