African-American gay parents more vulnerable?

At least 9,590 gay and lesbian African-Americans in California live with a same-sex partner, and more than half of those are raising children--an estimated 5,100 kids under the age of 18, according to a new study of U.S. Census Bureau data analyzed by the Williams Project at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law. The study's results suggest that the lack of equal marriage protections could put those families at risk.

Without ever mentioning the words gay and lesbian, the 2000 Census allowed cohabiting couples of the same sex to identify as "unmarried partners:' Researchers found that in California, African-American same-sex parents who self-identified as partners were raising their children with fewer resources than either nonblack parents who identified as same-sex partners or black different-sex parents.

"Many black same-sex couples, especially those with children, are economically vulnerable, especially as they lack the support and protections that marriage provides to other California families," says Gary Gates, coauthor of the report and senior research fellow at the Williams Project.

The average household income of the black same-sex couples in the study was much less than that of other self-identified same-sex couples: $61,434 versus $90,365. Black different-sex couples had an average household income of $65,845.

Nationwide, the 2000 Census counted 594,000 households headed by self-identified same-sex partners. Children under 18 lived in about 33% of the lesbian couples' households counted and about 22% of the gay male couples' households. Those numbers represent only a fraction of actual gay- and lesbian-led families, given that the census method fails to count closeted gay couples, single lesbian and gay parents, and two-household gay-led families. Gay rights groups argue that the total number of children living in households led by single or partnered gays and lesbians could approach 14 million.