Gay Population Exploding in Red States

From PinkNews


An American sexual orientation think-tank has released a report that reveals a "gay demographic explosion" in some of America's most conservative regions.


It was found that the number of same-sex couples in the United States has quadrupled since 1990, about 21 times higher than increase of the population as a whole.


The biggest growth came in regions the study termed "Southern," "Midwest" and "Mountain," including Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arizona and Utah.


The conservative regions all showed above-average growth in the numbers of same-sex couples since 1990, while the liberal regions all showed below-average growth.


Similarly, state recognition of same-sex unions was found to be inversely related to the rate of migration.


States that legislated same-sex civil unions or marriage between 2000 and 2006 showed a below-average increase (23 percent, compared to the national rate of 31 percent).


States where same-sex marriage was prohibited during those years experienced an above-average (37 per cent) increase, the states where marriage bans were enacted via voter referendum showing the highest increase of all (41 per cent).


The researchers put the increase down to greater acceptance of LGBT couples nationwide, more LGBT people choosing to couple and co-habit, and more couples moving to the suburbs, in migration patterns that differ from the nation as a whole.

This editorial from the Los Angeles Times says this is a natural result of more acceptance of gays in American society.

Gates' research on U.S. Census data drives home a point that the gay vanguard has been wrestling with for a while: The hedonistic, transgressive, radical ethos (and stereotype) that once characterized gay culture doesn't represent reality anymore. The decline of urban coastal gay communities, the increase in the gay population in the interior U.S. and the overall diversification of the gay population are facts. What's more, Gates argues, these trends are a function of the growing acceptance of homosexuality among the American public.

Acceptance? Really? Has Gates forgotten about the 45 states that have laws or constitutional amendments barring same-sex marriage, or the anti-gay discrimination bill that is stalled in Congress and faces opposition from the White House?

Not at all. There is, he says, a vocal, virulent -- and sometimes violent -- anti-gay movement, but it doesn't negate decades of opinion surveys that show a marked increase in tolerance in most Americans' attitudes toward gays and lesbians. In 1998, for example, a Gallup poll found that only 33% of Americans thought that homosexual relations between consenting adults should be legal. By 2007, that figure had risen to 59%.

Growing acceptance of homosexuality means a decline in social stigma associated with same-sex relationships, and a consequent shift in the politics of coming out. The more people come out, the more accepting people are around them, and the more accepting the public becomes, the more people come out.

More and more people are realizing that GLBT people are just that--people. No matter how complicated homophobes try to make things, it reaslly is that simple.