Gay and Lesbian Families in the United States: Same-Sex Unmarried Partner Households

GAY AND LESBIAN FAMILIES IN THE UNITED STATES:SAME-SEX UNMARRIED PARTNER HOUSEHOLDSA Preliminary Analysis of 2000 United States Census DataA Human Rights Campaign ReportAugust 22, 2001David M. Smith, Communications Director & Senior StrategistHuman Rights CampaignGary J. Gates, Ph.D.Population Studies CenterThe Urban InstituteHuman Rights Campaign919 18th St., N.W., Ste. 800Washington, D.C. 20006phone:202/628-4160fax:202/347-5323web:www.hrc.org 1The 2000 U.S. Census Bureau figures for same-sexunmarried partner households provide researchers andpolicy makers with a wealth of information about a pre-viously unrecognized constituency. These numbers pro-vide policy makers at every level of government com-pelling arguments for why they need to take care of thepolicy needs of gay and lesbian families as they live innearly every corner of every county in America.The notion that gay and lesbian people only live onthe coasts in major urban areas has been dispelled bythese U.S. Census Bureau statistics. The geographicaldiversity of where gay and lesbian families are living isstriking. From big cities to small farming towns, fromthe deep South to the Pacific Northwest, gay and lesbianfamilies are part of the American landscape. These figures will change the debate for manyAmericans — from an abstract controversy read about innewspapers or seen in noisy debates on television to adiscussion about real families, real people and real lives.To date, the U.S. Census Bureau has only releasedcounts of gay and lesbian coupled households, but asmore information is released, we will be able to deter-mine the number of children living in these households,income, racial profile, home ownership and otherimportant demographics. These facts will help us dispelstereotypes and present a fuller, more accurate picture ofthe gay and lesbian family in America. RELEASE OF 2000 DATA AND FLAWS IN1990 COMPARISONSThe U.S. Census Bureau has been releasing datathroughout the summer on the basic composition ofhouseholds in the United States. These data were col-lected from a 100 percent sample of the population andare designated by the Census Bureau as Summary File 1.The U.S. Census Bureau released these data in batchesof states during June, July and August, with the finalbatch released on Aug. 22, 2001. From these data, it waspossible to determine the numbers of households wherethe occupants described themselves as two people of thesame sex whose relationship was defined as being“unmarried partners.” Also, if two people of the samesex described themselves as in a spousal (legally married)relationship, the U.S. Census Bureau recategorizedthem as same-sex unmarried partners (two people of thesame sex cannot be legally married). Thus, these dataprovide at least a superficial count of the number of gayor lesbian coupled households in the United States.Census 2000 counted 601,209 same-sex unmarriedpartner households in the United States. That is a 314percent increase from 1990 when the census countedonly 145,130 same-sex unmarried partner households.The U.S. Census Bureau maintains that the 1990and 2000 censuses cannot be compared because of flawsin the way they classified such households in 1990. Inthat case, when same-sex partner households identifiedthemselves as being legally married, the Census Bureauin most instances changed the gender of the spouse.Such households were therefore counted as a heterosex-ual married couple. In the 2000 count, such coupleswere reclassified as unmarried partners. In effect, theU.S. Census Bureau is saying it undercounted the 1990same-sex unmarried partner households and that com-paring them to 2000 numbers would not be valid.While we presume the flaws in the 1990 reclassifi-cation would have some impact on the total percentageincrease in same-sex unmarried partner households, it isour view that Census 2000 does in fact reflect an actualincrease over the 1990 count. This is due largely to morecouples being willing to identify themselves in a federalsurvey as a result of a more favorable political climate.UNDERCOUNTIt is our view that the 2000 numbers for same-sexunmarried partner households are a dramatic increasefrom 1990, but the total number still represents anundercount of the actual number of gay or lesbian cou-pled households in the country. Possible explanationsfor this include continued prejudice and discriminationagainst gay people. In addition, despite efforts by theHuman Rights Campaign, the National Gay andLesbian Task Force and the Institute for Gay andLesbian Strategic Studies, urging gay and lesbian cou-ples to fill out the census form accurately, the question-naire might have been confusing to some. In addition,th