This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
On Thursday, the U.S. Census released data on same-sex-couple households in Utah. The number — 5,814 — is up 73 percent from 2000, largely because more gay couples are identifying themselves as unmarried partners or spouses when they complete their Census forms.
"The opportunity for our families to be counted and to be visible allows the greater population of Utah to have a clearer picture of the fact that LGBT people are residing in Utah," says Brandie Balken, executive director of Equality Utah. "We are raising families and we are a part of the community."
The Williams Institute, a sexual-orientation policy center at the University of California-Los Angeles, has released an easy-to-read "snapshot" of the data. Demographer Gary Gates adjusted some numbers with regards to the distribution of same-sex couples throughout Utah and the number whom have children. The adjusted numbers compensate for those same-sex couples who do not identify themselves and also the small portion of different-sex couples who miscode the sex of one partner.
Gates estimates that a smaller percentage of couples are raising children, 24 percent instead of 31 percent as reported in Census data. But the number of same-sex couple households remains the same.
To download Utah's snapshot, which was released with reports for Idaho, Missouri, Ohio, West Virginia and Wisconsin, click here.
The number of households headed by same-sex couples is the only way the Census captures data about the size of the nation's gay population. There are no questions that gauge the number of individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. But Gates estimates that 3.8 percent of U.S. adults self-identify as LGBT.
Balken would like to see questions added to capture sexual orientation and gender identity.
"That would be incredibly valuable information to have," Balken says. "If the goal of the Census is to identify the demographics in the community, it does make sense to allow people to self identify in ways that are meaningful to them."