Arguments for restricting access to legal marriage for same‐sex couples are commonly based in claims about differences between heterosexual and same‐sex couples regarding the social and psychological meaning of marriage. This mixed methods study examined meanings of intimacy and relational experience in a purposive North American sample of members of long‐term heterosexual and same‐sex couples (N = 150) in order to examine the validity of meaning‐based justifications for restricted access to legal marriage. Guided autobiographical techniques elicited narrative accounts of four significant events in participants’ relationships. Directed Content Analyses revealed no detectable differences between members of heterosexual and same‐sex couples in multiple qualitative and quantitative indicators of the meaning of intimacy. Members of same‐sex couples, however, evidenced experiences of stigmatization more frequently than heterosexuals. By integrating theoretical and methodological approaches across psychological and sociological traditions within a mixed methods study, the present findings usefully inform ongoing policy debates regarding the legalization of same‐sex marriage.