by Lynette Alice

Created on: April 21, 2009   Last Updated: May 20, 2009

Gay and lesbian couples are some of the misunderstood pairings on the planet for good reason; society in general has perpetuated myths about them which have permeated nearly every means of communication whether it be verbal, written, or visual. We see stereotypes about these types of relationships on television and in the movies, read about them in all forms of literature, and often these relationships are used as the punchline of jokes. The practice has continued so long that the stereotypes over time began finding acceptance as fact through nothing more than sheer repetition. What are they though and how can they be disproved?

One of the common myths is that even though a couple is the same sex that one must fill the role of the wife and the other the husband. This is untrue, because how do you define what the role of a husband, wife, mother, or father is? Even in heterosexual marriages the lines blur as to these roles. Does a man that does housework in a heterosexual relationship automatically get tabbed as the wife? Does a woman that handles finances somehow become the husband? Of course not. A couple is two people, two separate individuals that complement each other in a relationship. This stereotype only exists because it is based on equally novel stereotypes.

Another rather idiotic myth is that gay relationships are all about the sex. Again, this is just silly. If you were to believe the stereotypes every gay couple is engaged in nightly Roman orgies, so much so that it would be nearly impossible for them to do anything else. The fact is gay couples have no more or less sex than straight couples. They have lives which require everything a heterosexual couple does like paying bills, holding down jobs, shopping, raising their children in more and more cases, running errands, maintaining a home, and all the other little things that come with a normal life. In between all that there really isn't time for all kinds of wild and crazy sex parties, or even an abnormally active sex life. Simple logic dictates it just isn't reasonable to believe that.

One of the most disgusting stereotypes is that gay couples only want children so they can appear "normal", use them to recruit new members, try to make the child itself gay, or in the most twisted of minds exploit their children for their own personal gratification. For starters, gay couples are normal even if they are not the majority of the population. They are regular people that have a regular relationship

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