First-of-their-kind statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau provide important new documentation of the need for federal and state lawmakers to update a wide array of public policies in order to protect gay families.
The Census Bureau found, for example, that unmarried heterosexual and same-sex couples are nearly as likely as their married counterparts to be raising children.
One-third of cohabiting lesbian couples (33 percent) and one-fifth of cohabiting male couples (22 percent) have minor children at home. That compares with 43 percent of the unmarried heterosexual couples who live together and with 46 percent of married couples. (See 'Married-Couple and Unmarried-Partner Households' at www.census.gov .)
And demographers expect this trend to continue, says Urban Institute researcher Gary Gates.
In the 2000 Census, the adults in 594,000 households—residing in 99 percent of U.S. counties—identified themselves as same-sex couples. Of those households, 162,000 had children in the home. (These are undercounts because many gay couples fear revealing their sexual orientation.)
Unfortunately, U.S. public policies aimed at protecting families—from Social Security survivor benefits to federal and state tax breaks —are still geared toward married couples and their children. Because those of us who're gay have not yet won the right to marry, we are locked out of access to the huge safety nets that married heterosexuals can take for granted.
The Census figures offer the first official snapshot of gay American families. The gay Human Rights Campaign is already using the numbers in its advocacy work in Congress. After years of focusing on employment protections and hate-crimes laws, HRC is pushing what chief lobbyist Winnie Stachelberg calls 'kitchen table issues.' At the federal level, they include:
— Social Security: Unlike widows and widowers, same-sex survivors are not entitled to Social Security survivor's benefits, even if the deceased partner was the sole breadwinner. And if the child of a gay couple has only one legally recognized parent, that child is ineligible for survivor benefits if the other parent dies.
— IRAs: Widows and widowers—but not same-sex partners—can transfer their deceased spouses' IRAs into their own plan, delaying the tax bite and avoiding being forced into selling investments during a slump.
— Partner health benefits: Many employers give gay workers the option of putting partners on their health plans. But unlike with married couples, tax law counts the benefit as taxable income. For example, I am on my partner Joyce's health insurance—a $2,264 benefit for which she recently had to pay $679 in federal taxes and $136 in state taxes.
— Hospital visitation: Hospitals are not required to allow gay partners to visit one another. This could be changed through regulations on federally funded hospitals.
— Immigration: U.S. citizens and permanent residents who marry foreigners can petition to have their spouses become permanent legal U.S. residents. But dual-passport gay couples either must use gimmicks to try to keep the foreign partner here or move abroad to one of the 15 countries with gay-friendly immigration rules.
'These issues resonate in a way that other traditional civil-rights issues don't with many Republicans,' Stachelberg says. 'Many conservatives don't want to federalize more crimes and feel employers should be able to hire whom they want. But when it comes to taxes, for example, they feel differently.
'There are no reasons to deny us the components of marriage. The Census numbers help make the case for us.'
And simply by existing, those numbers take gay families one step closer to being brought under the protective umbrellas of existing government programs.
All families deserve equal access to vital safety nets.
COPYRIGHT 2003 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
