Same-Sex Partners a Fraction of State
Households
By Candia Dames
Capital News Service
Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2002
WASHINGTON - Same-sex partners made up less than 1
percent of Maryland's 1.9 million households in 2000, a Census figure that
gay
rights advocates challenged as a "serious undercount" of the
state's gay
partners.
But while gay-rights groups warned that the housing
numbers only count
"about a fraction of the (homosexual) population," pro-family
groups said
the count proves once and for all that gays and lesbians are much smaller
in number than they claim.
The 2000 Census reported that 11,243 of Maryland's
households, or 0.57
percent, were made up of same-sex partners in 2000. The figure rises to
10.2 percent when same-sex households are compared to all households
headed by unmarried partners.
But Census Bureau officials warn that the number of gay
partners could
be even lower, since the housing question could also cover roommates who
were the same sex but who were not involved in sexual relationships.
The state's rate of same-sex-partner households was
fractionally above
the national rate of 0.56 percent.
Maryland's 2000 rate was also up from the 1990 Census,
when only 0.17 percent of the state's households were reported as having
same-sex partners.
Gay-rights advocates tried to put the best face on the
numbers Wednesday, saying that even though they likely undercounted the
numbers of homosexual couples in the state, they still showed same-sex
partners in every county.
Percentages ranged from 0.8 percent in Baltimore City to
0.18 in Garrett County.
The fact that there are same-sex households in every
corner of the state, no matter how small, "makes less room for
ignoring a portion of the state's electorate," said Stacy Roth,
executive director of the Institute for Gay and Lesbian Strategic Study.
Roth said one reason the numbers are so low could be the
fact that this was only the second census to ask the question. Many gay
couples may not yet be comfortable with "coming out" in a
federal census, advocates said.
"People are definitely not yet comfortable
identifying themselves as gay on a federal questionnaire," said David
Smith, spokesman for another gay rights advocacy group, Human Rights
Campaign.
Gary Gates, a research associate at the Urban Institute,
said a proper analysis of the Census would show that homosexuals live in
99.9 percent of counties in the country. That, he said, adds weight to
issues like gay adoption, equal employment opportunities and gays in the
military.
Gates said that couples only represent about one-third
of the country's gay population "so you are only counting about a
fraction of the population."
Roth and others also noted that the housing figures do
not count all homosexuals in the country. The Census is prohibited from
asking about sexual orientation. Roth said that makes the same-sex
partners number a less-than-ideal measure of the total gay population.
But groups advocating for the protection of
"traditional" American values seized on the numbers as proof
that gays do not make up 10 percent of the overall population, contrary to
what they claim.
"I believe that less than 1 percent of the
population is engaged in homosexual behavior, so to have gay households
coming in at less than 1 percent is not at all surprising," said
Robert Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute.
Pro-family activists charge that homosexuals have
inflated their population numbers over the years to push their causes.
"It's a little bit galling to have such a small
percentage asking the entire culture to completely revamp their
views," said Ed Vitagliano, a spokesman for the American Family
Association.
Both men dismissed claims by gay-rights groups that the
numbers were not accurate.
"No matter what gay activists say, the most
accurate count we have is the Census," Vitagliano said.
Even if there were an undercount, Knight said, "it
couldn't fully explain the gaping discrepancy between the often-claimed 10
percent estimate and this tiny figure. If you look at other states, this
is not out of line."
Copyright © 2001
and 2002 University of Maryland College of
Journalism
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