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  #1  
Old Posted Nov 20, 2007, 7:37 PM
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Openly Gay Pop in the US booming; Utah soars from 38th to 14th "Gayest" State

An interesting look at Gay Demographics in the US. Times are changing in some of the most unlikely places.

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Mountain states such as New Mexico and Colorado now rate among the nation's "gayest" states, ranking 2nd and 9th in the concentration of same-sex couples. Utah, where President Bush received more than 70% of the vote in 2004, has moved from 38th in 1990 to 14th in the most recent rankings.

The bellwether state might be Utah. In 2005, Salt Lake City approved a benefits programs for lesbian and gay couples. Identifying openly as gay no longer represents an honor code violation at Brigham Young University. And, perhaps most striking, the state now has three openly gay state legislators. That's one more then the US Congress. Shades of purple ?
Top 10 states
The data, from the 2006 American Community Survey, reflects the number of same-sex couple households per 1,000 households by state.

1 Vermont 9.71
2 New Mexico 9.03
3 Massachusetts 8.99
4 Washington 8.94
5 Oregon 8.83
6 New Hampshire 8.73
7 Maine 8.57
8 California 8.50
9 Colorado 7.79
10 Rhode Island 7.63

Top 10 cities
The data, from the 2006 American Community Survey, reflects the number of same-sex couple households per 1,000 households in the top 50 most populous cities.

1 San Francisco 28.72
2 Seattle 21.27
3 Minneapolis 18.68
4 Portland 16.945
5 Sacramento 16.36
6 Oakland 15.62
7 Boston 14.72
8 Washington 13.49
9 Atlanta 13.32
10 Long Beach 12.80

National change
Same-sex couples per 1,000 households:

1990 1.56
2000 5.61
2006 6.79

http://www.law.ucla.edu/williamsinst...BriefFinal.pdf
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  #2  
Old Posted Nov 20, 2007, 7:50 PM
totheskies totheskies is offline
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Great article!!!!

I find it shocking that more and more gay couples are moving to the suburbs. They must be going after that "American Dream" like everyone else.

The city and state stats are pretty cool too. I would have never thought that the state of Texas would have more gay couples than the state of New York.
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  #3  
Old Posted Nov 20, 2007, 7:52 PM
ginsan2 ginsan2 is offline
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Minneapolis is what surprises me. Who knew?
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Old Posted Nov 20, 2007, 7:57 PM
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Im so proud of Utah its not even funny.

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Salt Lake City isn't one of the top 50(largest cities), but if it had been included, Gates says, it would have hit No. 13 in 2000 and vaulted to No. 8 in 2006, knocking Washington, D.C., down to No. 9 for density of households headed by same-sex couples.
http://origin.sltrib.com/ci_7439427
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Old Posted Nov 20, 2007, 7:59 PM
CenIL_LA CenIL_LA is offline
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Originally Posted by ginsan2 View Post
Minneapolis is what surprises me. Who knew?
The twin cities are a pretty friendly and accepting place....overall. I wonder how they conducted the survey. Its interesting that Utah would acquire a sizable group. Getting a true idea on numbers on numbers of people or communities is quite difficult I'd imagine.
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  #6  
Old Posted Nov 20, 2007, 8:30 PM
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Interesting that Atlanta lost gay population while its suburbs boomed. I wonder if that means they're a lot of Log Cabin Republicans there...
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Old Posted Nov 20, 2007, 8:41 PM
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Originally Posted by galaca View Post
Interesting that Atlanta lost gay population while its suburbs boomed. I wonder if that means they're a lot of Log Cabin Republicans there...

It isn't a measure of gay population...this survey counts the number of same-sex households. I guess single doesn't count, and most of the gay people I know are single...
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Old Posted Nov 20, 2007, 8:42 PM
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There are no statistics here on "openly gay" populations--only on purported gay couples. In places where most gays are single, this study will be useless in helping determine "gay population".
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Old Posted Nov 20, 2007, 9:03 PM
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^ exactly. I know a ton of gay people in Chicago. None of them are living in a "household" with a partner.
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Old Posted Nov 20, 2007, 9:11 PM
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I don't like to see same-sex couples as a proxy for how many G/L people there actually are- and as a sociologist I wish to hell there were a good way to measure it. But this stuff is interesting.
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Old Posted Nov 20, 2007, 9:56 PM
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I suppose you are all correct. I totally should have titled the thread differently.

However,
The findings I think are promising nonetheless.
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Old Posted Nov 20, 2007, 10:13 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fflint View Post
There are no statistics here on "openly gay" populations--only on purported gay couples. In places where most gays are single, this study will be useless in helping determine "gay population".
I guess the number at a household level are obvious as this is information avalible at a municipal and public level. But census data or civic census data doesn't specify sexual orientation (or do some? I highly doubt it.) so that statistic is lost. From a raw data perspective it's sad, because the number is hypothesized both higher then it actually is, and lower. (depending who's doing the calcualtions and what their motive is)
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Old Posted Nov 21, 2007, 2:02 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fflint View Post
There are no statistics here on "openly gay" populations--only on purported gay couples. In places where most gays are single, this study will be useless in helping determine "gay population".
I was surprised to see Portland above places like Chicago, so I'm not sure where these stats are coming from. Portland is super gay friendly, but still. There just aren't the numbers of gay men here I don't think.

Who knows?
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  #14  
Old Posted Nov 21, 2007, 3:43 AM
Jeff_in_Dayton Jeff_in_Dayton is offline
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6 of the 10 are on the West Coast, or near it (Sacramento # 5?).

I can tell you, even 20 years ago, there was a BIG difference in attitude between Sacto and Dayton, when I moved here. It's taken Dayton 20 years, 20 years to catch up to maybe pass an anti-discrimination ordnance this week.

I did a geography of same sex households in Dayton and suburbs and posted it at my blog (based on 2000 census and mapped by tract). The interesting thing is that the larger numbers were in the suburbs (where I live).
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Old Posted Nov 21, 2007, 12:21 PM
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as a whole, the entire country has become a more tolerant place. thats good! we still have a long way to go but its encouraging to see some of these stats....
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Old Posted Nov 21, 2007, 8:36 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by heckles View Post
I was surprised to see Portland above places like Chicago, so I'm not sure where these stats are coming from. Portland is super gay friendly, but still. There just aren't the numbers of gay men here I don't think.

Who knows?
PDX is by percentage. Portland has one of the highest populations of Lesbains in the Country as does surprise surprise Milwaukie, WI.

Hell San Francisco beats Chicago by percentage...but by total numbers of actual gay people Chicago of course beats both cities in total numbers of gay and lesbians just because of our shear size.

Not only is this method of counting very weak I would like to also through into the mix that gays on the coast would be much more open to reporting their couplehood than midwesterners....paradoxically midwesterners are probably more into fitting into the "mainstream" image of what a relationship is than are those on the coasts.
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Old Posted Nov 21, 2007, 9:49 PM
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I am so happy to see Sacramento in there. I can use this to stick to my gay friends in the Bay Area who always look down on my former home as another backwards valley town.

It is also great to hear the things coming out of Utah. I had thought Salt Lake City was somewhat more progressive than it was given credit for, and it seems like this shows that it is.
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  #18  
Old Posted Nov 22, 2007, 12:54 AM
IdahoMountainBoy IdahoMountainBoy is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pdxtex View Post
as a whole, the entire country has become a more tolerant place. thats good! we still have a long way to go but its encouraging to see some of these stats....
I disagree, it's a fallacy that this country is generally more accepting of homosexuals (of it course it in comparison to the 1960s but I would argue little progress has been made recently). These stats accomplish nothing but illustrating we, as gays, finally understand the meaning monogamy...Thank god
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Old Posted Nov 22, 2007, 6:50 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by totheskies View Post
Great article!!!!

I find it shocking that more and more gay couples are moving to the suburbs. They must be going after that "American Dream" like everyone else.

The city and state stats are pretty cool too. I would have never thought that the state of Texas would have more gay couples than the state of New York.
why would you find it shocking?

most gay people I know or chat to live in the suburbs and always have or mostly have and have no desire to move onto a "gay ghetto" aka a bigger closet
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Old Posted Nov 22, 2007, 6:03 PM
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What this also doesn't factor is that people will tend to live together in very high cost cities to cut costs. So in low cost cities, there may be many more gay partners that aren't living together.
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