Lots of closet doors are opening like never before — and in places where most gay folks five years ago were too wary of government census takers to acknowledge being in a same-sex relationship. “The closet door is really opening. That’s especially true in the Midwest,” says Gary Gates, author of a fascinating study based on the newly released 2005 American Community Survey — a sort of mini-Census — and the National Survey of Family Growth, both conducted by the federal government. Overall, the number of same-sex couples identifying themselves to the government soared 30 percent in five short years — to 776,943. To put that in perspective, the U.S. population grew 6 percent in that period. The biggest jumps in self-reporting by gay couples were largely in America’s heartland. The survey results suggest that anti-gay marriage drives are having a wonderful unintended consequence: They’re emboldening more of us to stand up and be counted. Six of the eight states with an anti-gay marriage initiative on this year’s ballot — Arizona, Colorado, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin — saw rate jumps higher than the 30 percent national average.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Loading ...
