More Tell U.S. They're Gay Partners - Number rose 473% in Colorado Springs from ’90 to ’06

No doubt Christianist hate merchant Daddy Dobson will be blowing a gasket at this news as reported by his home town newspaper, the Colorado Springs Gazette (http://www.gazette.com/articles/sex_30490___article.html/couples_study.html). The gays are multiplying rapidly right in Dobson's own back yard (even faster than the national average). A number of studies have shown that as the Christianists have managed to get anti-gay legislation passed, instead of slinking away and keeping a lower profile, gays have actually done the exact opposite and have become more visible and more outspoken about their relationships. Here are some story highlights:

The number of Colorado Springs same-sex couples reporting their status as “unmarried partners” to the government increased 473 percent from 1990 to last year, according to a study. The trend in Colorado Springs is part of a “gay demographic explosion in some of the country’s most politically and socially conservative regions,” said the study by the Williams Institute, a California-based think tank.

The institute studied how the number of same-sex couples has changed in all states and the 50 largest cities in the country. Nationally, the number of same-sex couples who reported their status to the government increased 437 percent during the same period. “Clearly, more same-sex couples are willing to openly identify themselves as such,” said Gary Gates, a senior research fellow at the institute and author of the study. The study relies on surveys conducted in 1990 and every year since 2000 by the U.S. Census Bureau. The surveys don’t ask about sexual orientation, but respondents can identify their relationship as an “unmarried partner” with someone of the same sex. Respondents can choose other words to identify their relationships, such as married partner, roommate or sibling.

Gay people “coming out” probably accounts for most of the increase in same-sex couples, rather than merely an increase in population or an increase in the number of gay people in relationships, Gates said. Colorado Springs’ population increased 32 percent from 1990 to 2006. The increases in gay couples were higher in politically conservative areas, and especially areas where voters approved bans on legal recognition of same-sex relationships, he said.