I looked up the actual numbers for Massachusetts and wanted to mention them. As, I mentioned in my previous post not many gay couples identify themselves as such using the Census. In the following, I am relating information in the complete census for Massachusetts (Summary Tape File 4b for the wonkoids).
Only 0.1% of all households in Massachusetts report themselves as unmarried same-sex partners. About 20 times more households (1.9%) are households with roommates. Even famously gay smaller towns in Massachusetts do not show many self-identified same-sex partners:
Northampton 0.9% (the oft-repeated factlet is that Northampton is 30% lesbian--this "fact" was even printed 10 years ago in the National Enquirer; I should add I live in Northampton)
Provincetown 2.2% (unlike Northampton equally divided between men and women, but a very small year-round population)
Shelburne 1.1% (they have the lovely bridge of flowers there)
Cambridge 0.8% (there goes the new economy)
So obviously you can't use these numbers to reliably report the number of gay couples, but that's no excuse for using same sex roommates (unless you want to get published and media attention).
Peace,
Jim
>I just wanted to add that gay couples can identify themselves if they
>choose to for the Census (at least in the written long form). There is
>the option of choosing unmarried partner as relation between householder
>and household member. I have used Massachusetts Census data and not many
>people use this option (there is no explicit instructions to do so and
>many choose "roommate" because it may connote just as well as "partner"
>with one's view of the relationship). If they chose "married" (another
>option I am sure many gay couples answered) I believe the Census cleaned
>it up (although they may need to change that now).
Straight is the ultimate post-gay construct.
--David Valdes Greenwood, "The Gay Agenda"