Census data from 2008 was released yesterday, and it showed that same-sex couples who identify as married are similar to straight spouses in terms of age and income, and nearly one-third of them are raising children:
“It’s intrinsically interesting that same-sex couples who use the term spouses look like opposite-sex married couples even with a characteristic like children,” said Gary Gates, the UCLA demographer who conducted the analysis. “Most proponents of traditional marriage will say that when you allow these couples to marry, you are going to change the fundamental nature of marriage by decoupling it from procreation. Clearly, in the minds of same-sex couples who are marrying or think of themselves as married, you are not decoupling child-rearing from marriage.”
This is in line with a study in July that found pretty much the same thing — marriage is marriage is marriage.
This was a surprise: “The study also found that Utah and Wyoming were among the states with the highest percentages of gay spouses in 2008, despite being heavily conservative states with no laws providing legal recognition of gay relationships.”
Read that, Maggie.
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