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.

See Census study of gay married couples finds similarities to husband … San Jose Mercury News

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