在中國有這么一類的家庭，在別人眼中，他們是普通的夫妻，但實際上，他們不住在一起，有著各自的生活和伴侶，最特別的是，這些丈夫和妻子都是同性戀者，現(xiàn)在越來越多的中國同性戀者都選擇這樣的婚姻，“形式婚姻”簡稱“形婚”，也有人把它叫做“互助婚姻”。

A marriage of convenience is a marriage contracted for reasons other than the reasons of relationship, family, or love. Instead, such a marriage is orchestrated for personal gain or some other sort of strategic purpose, such as political marriage. In the cases when it represents a fraud, it is called sham marriage.

Marriage of convenience指不是因為戀愛、家庭或愛情而結合的婚姻，即“形式婚姻”，簡稱“形婚”。這種婚姻安排是出于個人利益或者某些策略考慮，比如政治婚姻。如果某些形婚意在欺詐，那就叫假結婚（sham marriage）。

Another common reason for marriages of convenience is to hide one partner's homosexuality in cases where being openly gay is punishable or potentially detrimental. A sham marriage of this type, known as the lavender marriage, may thus create the appearance of heterosexuality. Such marriages may have one heterosexual and one gay partner, or two gay partners: a lesbian and a gay man married to each other. In the case where a gay man marries a woman, the woman is said to be his "beard". (Source: Wikipedia)

另一個常見的形婚理由是在公開同性戀者可能會被懲罰或傷害的情況下，隱瞞其中一方的同性戀傾向。這種虛假婚姻被稱為薰衣草婚姻（lavender marriage），有了這種婚姻就可以制造異性戀的假象了。這類婚姻中可能有一方是異性戀，一方是同性戀，也有可能男女雙方都是同性戀。如果男方為同性戀，與其結婚的女方就被稱為是他的“胡子”。