Census Shows Surge in Gay Couples in Virginia and Marryland

The census data has some bad news for the Christian Taliban crowd at The Family Foundation and for professional homophobes Bob Marshall and Ken Cuccinelli: the number of self-identifying same sex couples in Virginia has increased 49%. Thus, Marshall's admitted hope to drive gays from Virginia seems to be failing. Indeed, only one Virginia county in the far southwest of the state did not reveal any gay couples. Much of the increase stems from couples being more open about who they are in census returns. I predict that with the end of DADT next month, the census numbers will surge again in areas with heavy military populations such as Hampton Roads given that there are many gays and lesbians in the military who currently would never self-identify on census returns. Some are even couples where both are members of the military. And many couples have children to the likely horror of the Bible beaters. Here are highlights from the Washington Post:

The number of people who identify themselves as part of a same-sex couple has soared over the past decade in what demographers say is the product of an aggressive outreach effort by the Census Bureau and growing cultural acceptance.

In Virginia, the census counted 20,500 same-sex couples, a 49 percent increase that amounts to 1.2 percent of couples in the state. In both states [Maryland and Virginia], the number of heterosexual married couples increased only modestly.

In Maryland and Virginia, most of the same-sex couples live in urban neighborhoods. Baltimore and Richmond show the highest levels, and the Washington suburbs are close behind. In some Baltimore neighborhoods, as many as 14 percent of couples are gay and lesbian.

he census shows that gay and lesbian couples are present in every county in both states. And gay families with minor children were counted in every jurisdiction except for one sparsely-populated Virginia county near the West Virginia border.

Though their numbers are smaller, gay and lesbian couples with children show up at higher rates in many rural areas. Gates said that is because many of them had an earlier relationship and child with someone of the opposite sex.

Alison Page and her partner, Leanne Wells, left Virginia when they moved from Centreville to Laurel in 2004 after they decided to have children. Paige gave birth to twins in 2006, and Wells adopted them. “We knew we wanted to have children, so we moved before we started the process,” said Page, 37. “The state of Virginia would not allow second-parent adoptions for same-sex couples. Maryland gave us the legal protection we needed.

My views are Virginia are well known to regular readers and, if circumstances were different, I'd leave this backward state in a heartbeat.