By the numbers.

Census 2000 was the most accurate federal accounting of gay Americans ever--but was it enough?

Census 2000 may be best remembered as the gay census. For the first time, federal head-counters made a real effort to enumerate gay and lesbian households. As the data were released--four or five states a time--the numbers made the front pages of newspapers in big cities and small towns throughout the country. Although single gays and lesbians were left out of the count, demographers say the tally of 1.2 million same-sex "unmarried partners" is the result of the most substantial polling ever to be done of gays and lesbians in America.

While a study commissioned by the gay lobby group the Human Rights Campaign estimates that Census 2000 undercounted gay and lesbian couples by a huge 62%, the data nevertheless show that gays and lesbians are living in 99.3% of all counties in the United States.

"It's extremely important in the sense that gays and lesbians are the subject of an enormous amount of public policy discussions," says Gary Gates, a research associate at the Urban Institute, which conducted a study on the census commissioned by the Human Rights Campaign. "In most cases these policies have been debated with no information [about] how many people are affected by them."

HRC spokesman David Smith agrees. "What this does for the country is it changes the debate," he says. "It turns it into a debate about real people and real families."

Much was made of the massive increase in the number of same-sex couples in the past decade when the first statistics for 2000 were released this spring. Nationwide, the number of people reporting themselves as same-sex unmarried partners went up 314%. In Wyoming the increase was an astounding 2,590%.

But by the time numbers for the final states were reported in mid August, census officials were saying it wasn't appropriate to compare 1990 data to that from 2000. The Census Bureau now acknowledges that there were flaws in how it classified gay and lesbian households in 1990. At that time, in most cases where same-sex couples identified themselves as married, the bureau changed the sex of one of the partners. Therefore, many same-sex households were counted as heterosexual ones.

In 2000 the bureau reclassified such couples as "unmarried partners."

But HRC officials say the 2000 figures still represent an undercount. They cite several tallies that suggest the number of gay couples in the United States is much higher than the 601,000 (1.2 million gay and lesbian individuals) included in the census.

In his analysis, Gates says other sources suggest a much higher number of gay couples. While the census shows gay people in same-sex couple households represent less than 1% of the U.S. population, exit polls by Voter News Service in the last three elections registered the gay vote at between 4% and 5%. If 5% of the total U.S. adult population of 209 million were gay, there would be 10.4 million gay people in the United States.

A recent study of gay and lesbian voting habits conducted by Harris Inter-active determined that 30% of gay and lesbian people are living together in committed relationships. Using those figures, Gates suggests that there are actually 3.1 million gay and lesbian couples who live together in the United States, a figure that indicates the census undercounted gays by 62%.

But it's not entirely the Census Bureau's fault. Smith says many gay people are still afraid to identify themselves as such on a federal survey--even though identifying information is not released. Such fears are understandable in a country "where you can be fired for being gay, where you're not allowed to serve in the military and you're not allowed to be a Boy Scout," he says.

Another problem with tracking people based on their sexual orientation has to do with the fluidity of sexuality itself, Gates says. "Is being gay or lesbian being attracted to a member of the same sex? Or is it only people who actually have sex with members of their own sex?" he asks. "Does it include people who only sometimes have sex with members of their own sex?"

Nevertheless, Smith and others are advocating that the bureau for the first time ask a direct question about sexual orientation in Census 2010. And despite the problems that he and Gates acknowledge will accompany any attempt to truly measure the number of gay men and lesbians in the United States, they agree that the majority of people would be more than happy to answer such a question truthfully. In 2000, Gates says, most gay people simply "felt proud that they could finally document themselves in the census."

Reported same-sex couples

Under 2,000     For the first time ever, the
2,000-5,000     U.S. Census Bureau in 2000
5,001-10,000    included gay men and lesbians
10,001-20,000   in its report. However, Census
over 20,000     2000 recorded only same-sex
                couples who live together.
                Here's how the states rank
                by numbers of couples who
                fit in that category.

County by county

Census 2000 reported same-sex couples living together in 99.3% of the counties in the United States. That leaves only 22 counties with no federal record of having gay or lesbian residents.

GAY-FRIENDLY

Top 10 counties ranked by percentage of coupled households that are gay or lesbian

1. San Francisco County, Calif.: 6.91%
2. District of Columbia: 5.14%
3. New York County, N.Y.: 4.34%
4. Suffolk County, Va.: 3.55%
5. Arlington County, Ga.: 3.13%
6. Dekalb County, Ga.: 2.97%
7. Denver County, Colo.: 2.95%
8. Alexandria County, Va.: 2.93%
9. Monroe County, Fla.: 2.86%
10. Hampshire County, Mass.: 2.8%

GAY-FREE

Counties that have no recorded gay or lesbian couples

Colorado: Cheyenne and Hinsdale
Hawaii: Kalawao
Idaho: Oneida
Nebraska: Arthur, Blaine, Boyd, Greeley, Hayes,
   Hooker, Logan, Loup, Webster, and Wheeler
Montana: Liberty
North Dakota: Hettinger and Slope
Oklahoma: Cimarron
South Dakota: Buffalo
Texas: Kenedy, Loving, and Roberts

Where the lesbians are

In most states, gay male couples and lesbian couples are represented in almost equal numbers--the remarkable exception being Washington, D.C., where gay male couples make up 73% of the reported same-sex couples. But there are four states that lesbians seem to prefer. Ranked by the percentage of lesbian couples out of total same-sex couples reported, those states are:

Vermont: 61% lesbian
Alaska: 59% lesbian
New Mexico: 58% lesbian
Oregon: 57% lesbian