On Wed, 12 Jul 2000, Doug Henwood wrote:
> Thursday, July 06, 2000
> Different Worlds
> by Bill Bishop
>
> Gary Gates, a doctoral student at Carnegie Mellon University, used 1990
> census data to show that certain cities were more popular than others
> among people living with unmarried partners of the same sex. (His
> findings were published in the academic journal, Demography, in May.)
> Gates used the census information to construct a "gay index" of cities.
I have to say that I am somewhat unimpressed by the argument since, as Michael points out, unmarried men living together does not mean gay partners. Michael cites the cost of housing as leading to roommates, but there is a broader cultural issue involved. Roommates also reflect a more transient culture, as people avoid signing individual leases in favor of group houses that allow more flexible coming and goings. Transient populations are a natural correlation with the booming high-tech economy.
As well, to the extent that there is a correlation with tolerant alternative cultures and the hgih-tech economy, just the general phenomena of living with random strangers as roommates is a relatively new thing in our society, as a number of studies have noted. Single men once lived in rooming houses or SROs. The rise of general shared housing is in some ways an offshoot of (and no doubt partial instigator of) the commune culture of the 60s and 70s. And there is little question that the hacker culture has strong roots in that hippie-commune culture.
So given that single men living together correlates strongly with transient workers, high housing costs and hippie roots - all of which have arguably direct links with hacker-high tech culture - the correlation with "gay culture" seems mostly or completely projected onto the data.
-- Nathan Newman