Census study of gay married couples finds similarities to husband-and-wife couples
Marriage — whether you are gay or straight — may be the great common denominator among American households, according to a new government study that offers a first-ever look at the nation’s same-sex couples who say they are spouses. Married men and women average about 50 years old, and about four in 10 have kids living at home. The average couple pulls down a little over $90,000 a year and four in five own their home. That demographic portrait doesn’t just fit the nation’s 56 million husband-and-wife couples. It also closely fits the roughly 340,000 households where two men call themselves husbands, or two women consider themselves wives. In the midst of the nation’s widening debate over whether same-sex couples should be allowed to marry, the U.S. Census Bureau has quietly completed a statistical portrait of U.S. lesbian and gay couples who describe themselves as married. With same-sex marriage likely to be legal in as many as six states by Jan. 1, the study could add another layer to the debate. Many of those gay and lesbian couples live in states where they cannot legally marry, and may be checking the spouse box on their census form to reflect a domestic partnership, a civil union or partnership where two lives have been merged into one household.
* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/06/census-study-…
Who Supports Gay-Rights Issues?
A new poll from Quinnipiac University gives us a decidedly mixed picture of gay rights issues, reporting widespread opposition to gay marriage (55 percent to 38 percent), support for civil unions (57 percent to 38 percent), and opposition to the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy (56 percent to 37 percent).
The military question offers a pretty striking sub-statistic: a vast majority of respondents in military households don’t think openly gay men and women would be divisive for the military (though I haven’t seen a breakdown on whether most respondents were servicemen/women themselves, or whether they were wives, husbands, children, etc.)
There are some interesting underpinnings here to mine, rendering a picture of what kinds of people fall on the “pro” side of gay-rights issues. Quinnipiac tells us it’s women (who are six to 15 points more likely to support gay-rights issues than men), young people (53 percent of 18-34 year olds support gay marriage), Jews (81 percent support gay marriage), people who know someon who is gay (group is split on marriage, but supports civil unions while the “no” group doesn’t), and people with college degrees (support gay marriage 50 percent to 45 percent).
Philosophically, people are more likely to support gay-rights issues if they think people are born gay or straight (65 percent back gay marriage), while those who think homosexuality is a choice are much less likely (15 percent support gay marriage).
So, in sum, groups that are more likely to vote liberal, plus people who know someone is gay.
See Who Supports Gay-Rights Issues?
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/04/who-supports-…
Travel marketers eye gay travel dollars
More and more tourism industry marketers are eyeing the gay travel market. That’s no surprise considering the market’s disposable income. Here are the numbers courtes of Witeck-Combs Communications and Harris Interactive,
2004-2008.
6.8% of Americans over the age of 18 roughly 16 million adults self
identify as GLBT.
The buying power of the U.S. GLBT market is estimated at over $712 billion.
There are conservatively estimated over three million same-sex-couple households in the United States.
Nearly one in four U.S. gay men and lesbians live in households with children under the age of 18.
Because roughly 25% of U.S. GLBT households have children, GLBT consumers tend to have more discretionary income to spend than the average American family, affording them more per capita buying power than many consumer populations.
See Travel marketers eye gay travel dollars
Examiner.com
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/02/travel-market…
