Signs Youre Falling Out Of Love Lgbt

Gay Dating

7 Signs You’re Falling Out of Love (LGBT Advice)

Mason Glenn

Written by: Mason Glenn

Mason Glenn

Mason has had a long career in the matchmaking industry and has spent his time helping high-caliber clientele in Los Angeles select eligible matches. He specializes in working with gay men. Mason has the ability to read people based on their personality traits, relationship history, and biological thinking process. His training, personal experience in the field, and intuition play a key role in his making of lasting love connections. Currently, Mason is an acclaimed published author and is in the process of strengthening his career in content and brand strategy. His latest book, "Getting Ahead of the Gayme: Man First, Gay Second," can be purchased through Amazon, iBooks, or Google Play, and is available at select major book retailers.

See full bio »

Edited by: Lillian Castro

Lillian Castro

Lillian Guevara-Castro brings more than 30 years of journalism experience to ensure DatingAdvice articles have been edited for overall clarity, accuracy, and reader engagement. She has worked at The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, The Gwinnett Daily News, and The Gainesville Sun covering lifestyle topics.

Discuss This! Discuss This!
Advertiser Disclosure

When you’re in the honeymoon phase of a relationship, everything is so exciting because you’re getting to know someone, and no one can do any wrong. As time passes, you may start entering into the commitment stage, and then you start seeing if your partner’s habits are something you can deal with for the long term.

Let’s identify seven of those key qualities that can cause someone to fall out of love.

1. You Wonder What Your Value is Outside of a Relationship

You haven’t been single long enough to know your own value. I think a lot of gay men like the idea of a relationship, but not the actuality of a relationship.

Most gay men who are ready for a relationship have been through the dating and relationship gambit for a while and start picking themselves apart in a good way: what they can’t and what they can offer to a partnership.

Photo of scales

Maybe you’ve started thinking that you’re only defined by your relationship.

When gay guys are blindly figuring things out as they go, I feel it’s quite the slippery slope, and the relationship’s foundation starts to feel faulty.

If you’re new to the whole relationship thing, regardless of your “resumé,” it’s important to be self-aware and acknowledge that. We always need to love ourselves first and find that independence. That allows us to love someone wholeheartedly. How much you value yourself is a direct reflection on how you can value someone you love.

2. You Don’t Share the Same Relationship or Life Goals

I want to have the conversation of an open relationship vs. a monogamous relationship. It’s important to identify a person’s take and/or experience with this notion. There is no right or wrong answer, but to assume someone is like you is where things can start to fall apart.

If you aren’t comfortable with an open relationship, it’s important to ask the question: Why are you not open to that lifestyle? Open relationships require a lot of communication, trust, and negotiation at times. If this is something you aren’t comfortable doing right from the get-go, then it’s best to be honest and move on if you’re not of a like mind with someone.

3. You’re Not On the Same Page Sexually

I also want to talk about sexual chemistry in terms of frequency, compatibility, and your need of physical touch. To be open in this conversation is pivotal at preventing a relationship from falling out of love.

Photo of sad gay couple on a bed

Perhaps he wants an open relationship and you don’t, or you want sex more frequently than he does.

Where does physical intimacy lie on your relationship totem pole? This doesn’t have to be all about actual sex either. I have found that more sexual individuals need to be with other sexual individuals. If you’re really adamant about a certain sexual preference, make it known.

It isn’t someone’s responsibility to be what you want them to be. Sex should be easy and exciting, and too many rules and regulations can swiftly steer a relationship toward treacherous waters.

4. You’re Not Being Solutions-Oriented When Conflicts Arise

When conflicts happen, it’s important that we go into the mode of hearing someone and not playing the blame game. A psychologist once told me that we should always speak in hypotheticals to guide a person to self-realization as opposed to playing that blame game of sorts.

For example, you could say: “I understand that you’re angry, and thanks for letting me know. I love you. Now place yourself in my shoes, and can you get a sense of how I am feeling based on the situation?”

Gratitude is huge when conflicts arise. Nothing bad can come from telling someone that you care about the relationship. We should always come from a place of active listening and love. It’s the best way to be mature and to tackle the actual source of a discrepancy.

Communication is the actual glue to all relationships. Without it, a tower of sand can become a muddy mess when rain comes.

5. You Notice That You’ve Grown Up, But Your Partner Hasn’t

I have coached and actually been in relationships myself where our compatibility changed over time. Sometimes we grow out of love, and it’s important to recognize that.

Photo of a budding plant

For example, you want the relationship to progress, and you have goals that you want to accomplish with your partner. However, he doesn’t agree.

Most of the time, this natural change ends amicably. Maybe his career started to flourish, and you’re fine with yours and the lifestyle you want to live. Maybe you feel like you’ve grown a significant amount of independence in the relationship and don’t need to be reliant on your partner for a lot of things anymore.

Those types of major shifts are natural because we’re ever evolving humans with the life experience and the interactions we have. Those factors can cause changes in our mindset and personalities, and result in a shift in our attraction and compatibility.

6. You Realize You’re in a Relationship of Convenience, and You’re Being Complacent

I look at a lot of relationships in the Midwest or even the South, where I’m from, and I see a lot of self-proclaimed old-fashioned couples stay together because of a religious pressure. With this, a relationship is only glued together from a trivial societal opinion and not how that couple operates internally.

A relationship should always feel like work. Not necessarily work that feels cumbersome and troubling, but work that’s always changing for the better and work that you feel is always in a place of optimistic growth and communication. Life is too short to feel as if you’re drifting with the tide.

7. You Want to Find Time Alone to Grow More as an Individual

Some people feel that they grow a lot more being in a partnership. However, I can see where being outside of a relationship and finding your independence again is equally as good.

As I mentioned earlier, I think finding your worth, going through life experiences, and figuring out your strong and weak points in a relationship are equally as important.

Photo of man with his arms open

It’s hard to improve yourself when someone else is holding you back.

It’s easy for us to be blinded by love and to realize that we are willing to do anything for the person we love. However, I think there’s a moment that we must ask ourselves: Am I making this decision to change what best suits someone else, or am I doing it to benefit us as a couple?

Most people would say they need to feel independent in a relationship, but it’s also really good to acknowledge one’s independence outside of a relationship. Some people can get so caught up in a relationship that they don’t realize they’ve been molded into someone they are not — sometimes even unintentionally.

Remember Dating is Always Evolving Just Like You Are

Dating is something that is always evolving. That can either be a gift or a curse. When we first meet someone, we gather the materials and at least create a foundation or a road map. Some people already have their map laid out, and a lot of people will find that extremely attractive.

The thing about these maps is that we don’t know the destination at some points, but it’s OK because we’re figuring it out together with our partner in crime. Sometimes the path is a little rocky, and there are moments when we close our eyes and thankfully smell the fresh air.

However, sometimes the rough patches we have worked through in life make us change. That change can cause an internal shift within us — altering our preferences, personality, or even relationship goals. I would like to think that choice comes from a place of selfless love because our companion understands that the love they shared was something truly special and not something that creates sorrow.

Of course, I am a serial optimist, and I think nothing wrong comes from that mindset. And, if the departure comes as a sudden shock or even disparaging, we gather that journey and realize that we have already created a completely different map for a better future.

Advertiser Disclosure

DatingAdvice.com is a free online resource that offers valuable content and comparison services to users. To keep this resource 100% free, we receive compensation from many of the offers listed on the site. Along with key review factors, this compensation may impact how and where products appear across the site (including, for example, the order in which they appear). DatingAdvice.com does not include the entire universe of available offers. Editorial opinions expressed on the site are strictly our own and are not provided, endorsed, or approved by advertisers.

Our Editorial Review Policy

Our site is committed to publishing independent, accurate content guided by strict editorial guidelines. Before articles and reviews are published on our site, they undergo a thorough review process performed by a team of independent editors and subject-matter experts to ensure the content’s accuracy, timeliness, and impartiality. Our editorial team is separate and independent of our site’s advertisers, and the opinions they express on our site are their own. To read more about our team members and their editorial backgrounds, please visit our site’s About page.