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Many have a mental picture of LGBT couples with children being predominately white and affluent. A study of 26,000 gay and lesbian couples across California, raising an estimated 70,000 children, reveals that’s just not the case. The San Francisco Chronicle reported:
A study released Tuesday by a group of Bay Area organizations serving lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender families found that same-sex couples raising children in California are more likely to be people of color
and that their median household income is 17 percent lower than the income of married couples with children.
“There is an idea of LGBT families, when people think about it at all, there’s this perception that it’s affluent white folks, and the data show that’s based on our own misperceptions,” said Judy Appel, director of the Our Family Coalition in San Francisco. “We’re in every neighborhood, every race, ethnicity and economic group. Our kids are playing in the playgrounds and parks with all other kids.”
Some interesting findings:
The Our Family Coalition – along with the San Francisco Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Community Center and Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere – produced the report to paint a more accurate picture of gay and lesbian parents and their children. They drew on data from the U.S. census of 2000, the first year in which the government asked people to report whether they were living with a same-sex partner, as well as on several other studies, including two by the Williams Project at the UCLA School of Law.
The Williams Project found 1,400 same-sex couples raising children in Alameda County and close to 700 in San Francisco. The Our Families report notes that the numbers are probably on the low side because the census tracked only same-gender couples raising children, not gay and lesbian individuals with children.
…In Alameda and San Francisco counties, the report found, a large proportion of gay and lesbian couples raising children were nonwhite. In addition, 69 percent of same-sex parents were women. Those two factors could help explain why same-sex families have lower incomes, [Judy Appel, director of the Our Family Coalition in San Francisco] said, because women and people of color earn less on average.
The full report is located here.
That the LGBT community needs to be thinking in more diverse terms when thinking about ourselves, our families, and our socioeconomic situations goes without saying.
But, what we also need to be thinking about is what our spokespeople on issues look like — in other words, when I’ve seen same sex families highlighted on television, or when I’ve seen written and photographic profiles of same sex families, I don’t recall having seen families that weren’t white and at least middle class.
Those of us who have media members contact us about profiling LGBT people in general, and families in particular, need to remember what our LGBT families’ demographics actually are. And then, we need to work to ensure that our whole community is represented and visible.
19 Comments
taxes are part of the problemOne of the reasons there are greater financial stresses on gay/lesbian headed families is they have higher tax burdens than families headed by married couples. Actually, this additional tax burden is shouldered by single parents as well, be they gay or straight.Many of the tax breaks that exist such as the ability to file jointly, the child tax credit, college tuition credits, etc were clearly designed to help children, yet many of these benefits only help the children of married couples leaving children of gay couples and single parents out.Take filing jointly. For a middle income family, the difference between filing jointly vs having to file separately, one person as head of household and one as single, can be worth $2000 – $3000 per year. Over the course of someone's childhood, this could mean as much as $50,000 that his parents have to pay to Uncle Sam. This is money that could be used for food, clothing, college savings, etc. The types of things the designers of this tax break intended. If you look at the limits for things like the child tax credit and the tuition credits to name a few, the income cap to qualify is much higher for married couples than non-married couples or single parents. I am a single father of 3. If I compare my taxes from 2006 to a married couple with 2 children and the exact same family income (so we are still comparing 2 families of 4 people), the married couple pays over $4000 less in taxes. Between having to file as head of household and the fact that the married couple with the exact income and less kids gets the child tax credits and I don't, our family pays a big price.I am not sure of the history exactly, but a few years ago, didn't the right wingers change the tax structure to end what they called the “marriage penalty”. Before that weren't the tax rates for “head of household” and ”married filing jointly” the same? Regardless, not only are gay people denied rights by not being able to marry, but apparently our tax system also believes that the children of gay people (and single people) are not entitled to the same benefits as the children of straight people. Steve – Geneva, IL
attempting to legislate morality....is what the wingers did. Punish those that don’t fit the “Traditional Family” and try to force unhappily married couples to stay together for money reasons. Make it difficult for LGBT families, as well as single parent families so that they can point to failure do to financial reasons. This is the wingers main objection to ENDA, that we, the LGBT might have a fair shot at the higher paying jobs, therefore being able to raise our children to be able to compete against theirs in the free market. As well as not toting the “traditional Family” garbage. I am a single mom (trans) with two children that I am raising with no support from my ex, and making sure that they get the best education they can given the circumstances. We don’t have the finer things in life, but what we have is something no amount of money can buy, and that is LOVE. And that scares the living shit out of them. Because they can’t figure out how to stop our LOVE.
Truth in Advertising Doesn’t SellThat the LGBT demographic represents a clear picture of the real America, just like any other demographic study, it's still the white bread picket fence that sells. Even for us.
I feel the love.I do.
I agree that people shouldn’t have different tax burdens.It is inherently unfair. We all breathe the same air, drive the same air, and eat roughly the same amount. (except for my teenage boy).
Thank you AutumnI really appreciate this story, Autumn, it opened my eyes to a situation I had no idea existed. Can you please do some follow ups with more information as you find it?
I love a good study……and if you haven’t noticed, I’m a strong promoter of diversity. You may even call diversity one of my personal agenda issues.
I know I feel I can’t highlight diversity and poverty nearly enough.
You can just about bank on it, BinkyBoy, that I’ll be posting on LGBT studies that highlight our community’s diversity, socioeconomic stautuses, and about our children.
Drive the same air?
When I break down your SNaccording to its roots, it fits you perfectly. Especially the “dys-” part.
Why break it down?Why not take it as a whole enchilda?Dissonance: a harsh or disagreeable sound. inharmonious or harsh sound; discord; cacophony.a simultaneous combination of tones conventionally accepted as being in a state of unrest and needing completion.an unresolved, discordant chord or interval.disagreement or incongruityLack of agreement, consistency, or harmony; conflict: a conflict of people's opinions or actions or characters… Yeah, I'd say that fits pretty well for a conservative republican transwoman who thinks *anyone* who doesn't adhere to the prinicples of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness with equality and justice for all needs to knocked upside the head. Of course, we could also gt intothe metaphysical meanings of it all, since I'm not a Christian, not a wiccan, not an athiet, and there's only, oh, maybe 3K followers of my faith left on this whole planet. *of course* the dys part fits, LOL! Why the heck do you think I chose the name?
No, honey.You didn't even use the right spelling of your own SN when you 'defined' it.It's “dys-” not “dis”"Dys-” means abnormal, difficult, impaired.
plaintiffs couplesyour post reminds me of the controversy over the make up of groups of plaintiffs in various marriage lawsuits. In MA, the group of couples suing the state to get married (the “Goodridge” couples, named for the lead couple) were all white except for one individual. And, they at least appeared to all be middle class or above. In other words, not really representative of the LGBT reality.
I don’t know what calculus went into selecting those particular couples and not including a wider variety of ethnicities and economic realities. The range of possibilities would seem to include anything from which types of couples did the lawyers think could best win the PR war and sympathy of the court, to less flattering possibilities.
Whatever the reason behind who was chosen, it unfortunately lead to some serious anger from LGBT people who then felt excluded by the whites in charge of everything, always in charge of everything.
I’ve noticed that things were done differently in some other states. For example, in NJ and I think WA, the couples really reflected the true ethnic and economic diversity of LGBT people (although to my knowledge no T’s were involved in any of these suits). But again, I don’t know if this was a calculation by their lawyers to best appeal to PR and the courts in the area, or something more fundamental like unquestioning dedication to parity no matter what.
My assumption is that these things are very carefully calculated, much like jury selection. Does anyone have any first-hand knowledge of how these decisions are made?
and “sonance”?You can't break a word down to get its meaning unless you do all the parts, silly. I think you'll find an issue. THe other part would be consonance, though, so you know. ANd it works the same way then as I just described to you. Given I like to use the letter y in all my online SN's, I get pretty creative that way. I used the “regular” spelling for your ease of mind. Wouldnt want to stres it too much. You've got all those egg and spermy shows to handle…
I could tell you, but thenyou’d have to kill me. Or at least never speak to me again because my participation in this process is unethical. Or maybe it’s an unethical process. It’s about marketing, not about justice, and I find that painful and questionable while I’m doing it anyway because I want to win.
Here’s the deal: It’s really hard to identify, qualify and adequately vet 5 to 7 couples that represent the lesbian and gay population of a particular state.
Parenthetically: Including Ts hasn’t made it onto the radar, because the additional layer of complexity just gives judges one more layer of delicious frosting to dig through before they can enjoy the cake. I don’t anticipate that changing, and there is no reason for that additional burden to be carried by the arguments our lawyers make, because marriage equality has as its goal making gender irrelevant to which 2 folks can get a marriage license from their state.
As to why it’s hard to find couples: I’ve been recruiting couples in my state to front for this issue for 4 years. It’s a big job. What we’re asking some families to do for us is to take a part-time job that will subject them to the same scrutiny as running for Congress would.
The truth is that the stress of taking this particular leadership position for our community is destructive. The Goodridges achieved a Pyrrhic victory; they are now legally divorced in MA. Would that relationship have lasted without the stresses of being the example couple? I have no idea, but it’s happened in several states now. That’s reality and I’m not unethical enough to lie to people in order to use them for political gain. I’m willing to use them, but they have to know what they’re getting into as accurately as I can represent it.
My wife and I won’t do it. We have discouraged our friends from doing it. And we’re relatively rich and white, as a family, compared to the couples and families that would make the best plaintiffs. Adding that destructive force to money worries and institutional racism pressures on the adults in our family, and it would be the last straw.
Sorry to be the bearer of unwanted news, but yeah, you noticed correctly that the couples are not reflective of our community’s reality and that’s unlikely to vary in the future.
GLBT a poor peoples movementRosie, Ellen, HRC black tie dinners, GLAAD awards, Queen Mary $10,000.00 cruise,, “Out” fashion magazines, Log Cabin Republicans, Palm Springs White Party,all poor people stuggling to get a seat in the front of the bus.
Sure you can break many words down by their roots.“Dys” = abnormal, difficult, impaired “son” = sound. “Con” is yet another root, meaning “with”.
great explanation, thanks.i actually don’t necessarily disagree with marketing being a factor in who to choose to be plaintiff. for me, the legal victory is the goal. a win by the mostly-white Goodridge plaintiffs was a win for ALL gay people. however, i am sad that this hasn’t been very well explained to the community at large (or if it has been, i’ve missed it) so that blame and hurt feelings could be avoided. but i suppose it’s not the easiest message to get out there, either.
for us in the community, the focus should be on supporting the couples who take part in these lawsuits on behalf of all of us, and not on the identity of those couples. as you say, they are sacrificing a lot for us.
yeah, riiightfirst of all, that study was done in 2 counties in CA. they never claimed their results to represent all of queerdom. i could answer your bit above by claiming that all straight people are rich. because think of it: Vice President Haliburton, Bill Gates, virtually every Fortune 500 CEO, Elizabeth Taylor, all those poor straight people struggling to find a place to park their Hummers. just as silly, isn’t it?
The Reichwing does not care about children……and this is an example – children are being hurt by the Reichwing's effort to punish LGBT parents.Here's my take.