Thu. January 20, 2011
Jacksonville, Fla. -
Lesbians and gay men in the South are more likely to be parents than those in other spots, a new analysis of Census data shows.
The New York Times reports that gay couples in places like Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas are more likely to have kids than those in California and New York.
There are a few reasons for this surprising situation.
The New York Times speculates that a lot of gays and lesbians in the South came out of the closet after they'd already been in straight marriages, and many of the kids are the products of those marriages.
The newspaper also reports that African-American and Hispanic lesbians and gays are more likely to have children, which fits in with the overall demographic for these groups (which are, gay or straight, more likely to have kids than Caucasians).
In 2009, the Census estimates that there were 581,000 gay couples in the United States. A third of the lesbians are raising kids, as are a fifth of the gay men.
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