Nitubara: Census: 131,729 gay couples report they're married

FILE - In this May 19, 2011 file photo, a state trooper stands by as demonstrators on both sides of the gay marriage issue gather outside the Minnesota House in St. Paul, Minn. The Census Bureau reports there are 131,729 same-sex couples in the U.S. who say they're married _ the first-ever government count of this kind. The 2010 results show that about 20 percent of the estimated 646,464 gay couples in the country checked off "husband" or "wife" boxes on their census forms. (AP Photo/Jim Mone, File)

FILE - On this May 19, 2011 file photo, demonstrators on both sides of the gay marriage issue gathered outside the Minnesota House in St. Paul, Minn. The Census Bureau reports there are 131,729 same-sex couples in the U.S. who say they're married _ the first-ever government count of this kind. The 2010 results show that about 20 percent of the estimated 646,464 gay couples in the country checked off "husband" or "wife" boxes on their census forms. (AP Photo/Jim Mone, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Increasingly visible, the number of gay Americans telling the U.S. census they're living with same-sex partners nearly doubled in the past decade to about 650,000, and more than 130,000 of them recorded themselves as husband or wife.

Census figures released Tuesday provide a rare snapshot of married and unmarried same-sex couples in the U.S. based on the government count conducted last year, when gay marriage was legal in five states and the District of Columbia. It comes at a time when public opposition to gay marriage is easing and advocacy groups are seeking a state-by-state push for broader legal rights.

Some 131,729 same-sex couples checked "husband" or "wife" boxes on their decennial census forms, the first time people could do so, after gay marriage became legal in Massachusetts starting in 2004.

That 2010 tally of married gay couples is higher than the actual number of legal marriages, civil unions and domestic partnerships in the U.S. Even after New York legalized gay marriage in June, a Census Bureau consultant, Gary Gates of UCLA, put the actual number of legally recognized gay partnerships at 100,000.

"There's no dispute the same-sex population increases from 2000 and 2010," said Martin O'Connell, chief of the fertility and family statistics branch at the Census Bureau. In cases of couples who reported they were living in a marriage relationship, "they basically responded that way because that is truly how they felt they were living."

The total of 646,464 gay couples in the U.S. was a downward revision of the Census Bureau's count of 901,997 released last month. The bureau said Tuesday it had to make the adjustment after determining that coding errors resulted in an exaggerated count for the initial number.

Still, researchers believe the new estimate could be as much as 15 percent lower than the actual number of gay couples in the U.S. because of social stigma, discrimination or other concerns about confidentiality. In a small number of cases, younger gay couples also may not have been counted in the census if they were "doubling up" in a home where neither was the head of household.

Based on revisions made to the 2000 census figure as well, the number of same-sex couples nationwide rose 80 percent from an adjusted 2000 figure of 358,390. Previously, the Census Bureau had reported there were 594,391 same-sex couples in the U.S. in 2000.

Nationwide, about 51 percent of the couples last year were female. Nearly one in five of the same-sex couples was raising children at home ? widely distributed among those who reported being in marriage relationships and those who were not.

Broken down by state, the highest share of households with reported same-sex couples ? both married and unmarried ? was in Washington, D.C., at nearly 2 percent. Washington was followed by Vermont, Massachusetts, California, Oregon, Delaware, New Mexico and Washington state. On the other end of the scale, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming had the smallest shares, each with less than one-third of 1 percent.

Gay rights groups say the latest census numbers are an important step in increasing visibility and helping to dispel notions that they live primarily in big cities on the two coasts. Still, because the census forms do not ask about sexual orientation, some activists have complained that single gays ? as opposed to those with live-in spouses and partners ? have no means of gaining collective representation through the census.

"Every step is a step forward in acknowledging that, yes, we do exist," said Lois Farnham, of Burlington, Vt., who recorded a civil union with Holly Puterbaugh the first day they were allowed in 2000 and then legally married her in 2009.

Farnham, 67, said she expected the census numbers would underestimate the number of people in such relationships, noting that many same-sex couples keep quiet about their married status. "They can't share that with a lot of people for family or job security reasons. It's still an issue and people are still being discriminated against," she said.

Puterbaugh, 65, said many couples live as if they're married without making it formal. "You have to remember that there are many straight couples who have chosen not to marry for whatever reason that may be," she said.

The new same-sex data also come as battlegrounds lie ahead over gay rights. Voters in North Carolina and Minnesota will be deciding next year on the fate of constitutional amendments banning gay marriage, while the Maryland Legislature is expected to consider a bill that would legalize it.

An August poll by The Associated Press and the National Constitutional Center found a narrow majority of Americans support legal recognition of same-sex marriage ? 53 percent to 44 percent opposed. That is largely unchanged from last year but a shift from 2009, when a slim majority opposed government recognition of gay marriage.

In 2000, citing the federal Defense of Marriage Act, the Bush administration directed the Census Bureau to re-code same-sex couples who identified themselves as married to be counted as unmarried partners. Pressed by gay-rights groups in 2009, the Obama administration reversed that policy, allowing the bureau to count same-sex couples as married.

Last week, the U.S. military passed a historic milestone with the repeal of its ban on gays serving openly.

___

Associated Press writer David Gram in Montpelier, Vt., contributed to this report.

___

Online:

www.census.gov

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-09-27-US-Census-Same-Sex-Couples/id-59b3537d4276420bb2edd480837d81de

bart the thing sprout sprout christina milian pilates weather miami