So what are the relationships lessons straight couples can learn from the gay community?
1. AN EX CAN BE A BEST FRIEND
Long before American author and family therapist Katherine Woodward Thomas devised the phrase 'conscious uncoupling' and Gwyneth Paltrow made it famous, lesbians were the godmothers of the concept of compassionate endings.
Recently, Dr Jane Traies conducted the first comprehensive study of older lesbians in the UK. She told me, "It's not uncommon for a lesbian's ex-partner to be her best friend." She described one couple, now in their seventies, one of who had previously been in a straight marriage. The other had always been openly gay and had many more significant exes, who they would regularly spend time with. The central relationship seemed to be richly rewarded by having this framework of other ongoing connections supporting it.
2. 'Living Apart Together' can be great
Although the idea of 'LAT' couples is now more widely discussed, it was the LGBT community who originally piloted this idea. As my friend, the gay poet Dominic Berry, points out, "Perhaps if people are doing something widely viewed as deviant, making another deviance from the norm isn't too big a jump."
A lot of the automatic assumptions that are made about relationships - that you must get married, be monogamous, have children, move in together - have been cheerfully dispensed with. In many cases, an alternative romantic framework suited the individuals in the relationship much better.
3. TALKING ABOUT LOVE, SEX AND DESIRE IS GOOD
When I conducted a survey for my comedy show, I asked respondents if they actually discussed sex and fidelity with a partner. One straight woman wrote, "Good lord no! It's one thing to do the deed but we're too uptight to actually talk about it. Thank goodness."
My gay friends, by contrast, tend to have spent so many years agonising about their sexual identity that discussion of it with friends and families has been essential as part of the 'coming out' process. In many cases, this had lead to a readiness to air other really important questions around desires, boundaries and consent once they were in an adult relationship.
4. "FAMILY" DOESN'T HAVE TO MEAN BLOOD
When I arrived in London as a young student in the Nineties, the LGBT community provided me with the strongest sense of belonging I have ever experienced.
In the face of prejudice and discrimination, gay people historically partied hard together and took more care of one another within the bubble of separatism. They cultivated a concept of 'friends as family', something the writer Armistead Maupin refers to as 'logical family'.
5. LOVE ISN'T LIKE IT IS IN THE MOVIES
Because films depicting same-sex relationships have generally been far-removed from the sugary rom-com ideal, gay people are more pragmatic and realistic about the extreme challenges of falling in and out of love and staying together.
In 2017, we may not be facing quite as much adversity as the characters depicted in Carol or Brokeback Mountain, but we know that the "fairy tale" romance is a load of old hokum.
6. RULES ARE MADE TO BE BROKEN
When the activism group Gay Liberation Front formed in the early Seventies, they gleefully celebrated their difference from the oppressive, beige 'norms' that most of society were having to follow. This resulted in an inclusive, embracing atmosphere and a sense of fun and freedom for anyone who wanted to reinvent and rethink traditional relationships and try out different models of being together.