A new study has found that married same-sex couples in the U.S. are almost twice as likely to be raising kids as unmarried ones. Same-sex couples are also nearly three times as likely as their different-sex counterparts to be raising adopted or foster kids. Among married couples, that difference rises to five times.
The study, by Gary Gates of UCLA’s Williams Institute, the leading expert on LGBTQ demographics, analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2013 American Community Survey. Here are some of the key findings about same-sex parents. (Alas, it’s hard to study single LGBTQ parents given that the Census has not collected information on sexual orientation or gender identity.)
Marriage and Children
Married same-sex couples are more likely than unmarried ones to have children under 18.
Overall, Gates calculates that 18 percent of same-sex couples are raising children under age 18, compared to 43 percent of different-sex couples. This means that of the approximately 690,000 same-sex couples in the U.S., nearly 122,000 of their households are raising 210,000 children.
For same-sex couples, marriage and raising children are connected. Married same-sex couples are more likely than unmarried ones to have children under 18 (27 percent versus 15 percent). Among different-sex couples, in contrast, almost the same percentage of married and unmarried couple are raising children (43 versus 44 percent).
Looking from the perspective of the children, approximately 71,000 children, one-third of all children being raised by same-sex couples, had married parents. In states with legal marriage for same-sex couples (as of 2013), this rose to just over half of the children being raised by same-sex couples.
Gates then brilliantly uses this data to answer the question, raised by opponents of marriage equality, of whether allowing same-sex couples to marry will reduce the likelihood that children will be raised by married different-sex parents. He finds that the percentage of children being raised by married, different-sex parents was actually slightly higher in states where same-sex couples could marry. Ha!
Adoption and Fostering
Same-sex couples are nearly three times as likely than different-sex ones to be raising adopted or foster children, and the amount rises to five times as many among married couples.
Same-sex couples are less likely than different-sex ones to be raising children—except when it comes to adopted or foster children. Same-sex couples are nearly three times as likely than different-sex ones to be raising adopted or foster children, and the amount rises to five times as many among married couples.
In raw numbers, nearly 27,000 same-sex couples are raising approximately 58,000 adopted and foster children. More than 26,000 of those children have married same-sex parents.
At the same time, Gates says, 61 percent of children being raised by same-sex couples are the biological children of one of the parents. For different-sex couples, it’s 90 percent.
Demographics
Same-sex couples raising children are more likely than different-sex ones to live in the Northeast and West, likely because of the availability of marriage. The percentage of same-sex couples raising children does not vary much across any region of the country, though.
Over three-quarters of all same-sex couples raising children are female. Looked at another way, 27 percent of all female couples and 8 percent of male couples are raising children. For married ones, the number of parents raising kids goes up: 36 percent of female couples and 17 percent of male couples; for unmarried ones, the numbers drop to 24 and 6 percent, respectively.
More than a third (34 percent) of same-sex couples raising children are racial and ethnic minorities, mostly African American (12 percent) and Latino/a (15 percent), with some Asian/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander (2 percent), American Indian/Alaska Native (0.6 percent), and Other (4 percent). Also, more than a third (35 percent) of racial or ethnic minority women in same-sex couples are raising children, compared to only 24 percent of their White counterparts. For men, those numbers are 16 and 6 percent, respectively.
Socioeconomics
Nearly 1 in 5 children being raised by same-sex couples is living in poverty. But among married same-sex couples, that figure is less than 1 in 10.
Like different-sex couples, married same-sex couples are more economically secure than unmarried ones. Married same-sex couples have a median household income approximately 27 percent higher than that of unmarried ones. Only 4 percent of married same-sex couples live in poverty, versus 18 percent of unmarried ones. Nearly 1 in 5 children being raised by same-sex couples is living in poverty. But among married same-sex couples, that figure is less than 1 in 10.
Conclusions
What can we conclude from all this? I’m not sure why married same-sex couples are more likely to have kids than unmarried ones. It could be that the emotional and economic stability of being married makes couples more likely to consider parenthood, or that couples who are or want to be parents are more likely then to seek the stability of marriage.
Other takeaways that have been known before, but that this research affirms:
- Marriage brings economic advantages to same-sex couples just as to different-sex couples.
- Same-sex couples are a vital part of addressing the need to find permanent homes for children in foster care.
- Same-sex parents are everywhere, although there are more of us in areas of greater equality.
- We come in all colors.