U.S. Same-Sex Couples More Likely To Be Diverse

A new report from the Williams Institute analyzes the 2010 United States Census data and discovers the interesting result that same-sex couples are more likely to be interracial or inter-ethnic than either different-sex married couples or different-sex unmarried couples. The report, entitled Same-sex couples in Census 2010: Race and Ethnicity, and written by Gary Gates (the premiere LGBT demographer in the United States) estimates that 20.6% of same-sex couples are interracial/inter-ethnic while only 9.5% of different-sex married couples are and 18.3% of different-sex unmarried couples are. (Actually another interesting result here is the wide difference in diversity between married and unmarried different-sex couples, 45 years after Loving v. Virginia legalized interracial marriage nationwide. Is it a possible residual effect of social stigma against "miscegenation"?)

The report also looks at the variation in same-sex couple racial and ethnic diversity by state:

More than half of same-sex couples in Hawaii (53%) are interracial or interethnic (see Figure 6).  About a third fit that category in California (33%), New Mexico (31%), and Nevada (30%).  Other states where same-sex couples are likely to be interracial or interethnic include Alaska (28%), District of Columbia (28%), Oklahoma (26%), Arizona (26%),  Texas (25%), and Colorado (24%).  Less than 10% of same-sex couples are interracial or interethnic in Maine, Mississippi, Vermont, West Virginia, and New Hampshire, and Alabama.

Gives a new meaning to "We Are Everywhere"!

Hat/tip to Wonder Man.