The stats are suspect. In states which are unfriendly to LGBT people, can one believe the people resident would actually discuss this with Gallup, and tell the truth?

As the authors state.

The numbers are unreliable.

The last census also suggested that gays are more likely to be parents in the south:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/19/us/19gays.html?pagewanted=all

Could suggest all kinds of things, including that more conservative gay people live in some places. Here in Tallahassee (on an anecdotal level) we know a number of lesbian couples with children. I think that even many conservative people can, at bottom, respect the desire for stability and family. My wife’s right-wing Baptist family has accepted one gay cousin, who recently married his long-time lover and lives in Atlanta (where, of course, a lot of gay people live).

Certainly San Francisco, where I lived during two periods, is a mecca for gay people. But those people may already represent a certain subset of attitudes and lifestyles. If you consider that most of humanity has little choice about where it lives and that mobility is also declining here. . .
only a small, probably young group of people can pick up and leave to begin with.

For me as a young radical it was important to be in cities (NY, SF, Boston) when I was young. That is less the case now that I have a family. Small, enlightened towns often present less harsh environments, and they are dotted around the country. Montana’s conservative, but Missoula is cool.

I might add that there’s a widespread assumption that gay people are liberal/progressive that it’s a mistake to make. If two and twenty just ARE. . . then we can expect them to harbor a wide range of opinions about politics, generally.

I’m sorry, but I don’t buy the argument the authors give. I do believe that could and probably does explain some of it, but IMO not all of the difference.

I wonder if anyone has done studies looking at LGBT emigration and immigration from states. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to conclude that LGBT couples, for example, would want to relocate to a state that allows gay marriage. Or LGBT parents to states with more enlightened adoption procedures. Or even in states where they’re more enlightened overall. I’m recalling the recent school teacher fired merely for being gay. It seems a no-brainer someone like that would look to move to a more enlightened state.

I dunno, but to me the differences are far too big to be explained by folks being hesitant to admit over the phone being gay. IMO there really are areas with more LGBT people living there.

YMMV

You give two reasons which both make sense. But I think there is a third to throw into the mix. In states that are less accepting, there are probably a lot more people who are confused/closeted because of the stigma associated with being gay. Its not just that they are afraid to identify as gay to the pollster. Its that even though they are gay, they may be married, or the thought of being gay is so scary or repulsive to them that they identify as straight when asked.
Ted Haggard would have identified as straight for most of his life if asked, as would Larry Craig and a host of others. They may even have believed they were.
Been there, Done that.

good point!

A significant amount of those children are from probably from previous opposite-sex relationships rather than being planned. This isn’t really a good thing. It shows that there is a lot of social pressure to live a straight life before people realize that it isn’t working out.

Book Salon up with Tom Wilber’s Under the Surface: Fracking, Fortune, and the Fate of the Marcellus Shale hosted by Steve Horn

A key distinction in that survey: “Identify as LGBT.”

If there was a way to suss out actual numbers of people who may identify as straight, but nevertheless engage in gay sex from time to time — meaning they’re actually bisexual in practice, even if not in identification, I’d wager those percentages would be much higher.

Then there are those who are closeted and in denial. Or simply closeted and unwilling to tell anyone about their actual sexual and/or gender orientation.

Up until my early 30s, I never would have admitted to anyone I was anything but straight. Turns out I never really was, but that’s what I kept telling myself all those years of trying to want what I was supposed to want.

You didn’t read the article.

There are no gay people in Iran, according to Iran’s president who should know.

There have been some studies on migration patterns. Gay men, for example, show a definite tendency to migrate from rural areas to large urban areas. Lesbians, on the other hand, do not show this tendency. I’m not aware of research on bisexuals or (straight) transgender people; there are likely to be problems with inadequate sample size there.

This is one of those cases where we shouldn’t sacrifice accuracy for inclusiveness: we shouldn’t assume that all members of the “alphabet soup” behave the same way.

I don’t know where members of the GLBT community live or why they live there. I am not sure anyone really knows, even members of the GLBT community, as there are such variations from person to person. I think people can really speak with authority only for themselves. And even then…

NOM’s website’s take on this is predictable. They say that the concentration of gay people in DC is proof that gays have disproportionate political power. Living in DC equates with political power for gays for NOM.
That said, I’m glad there are lots of us in DC because it makes us visible to all those tourists who come into the district and take their families to lunch on P street or 17th street or capitol hill or around dupont circle.

I did and that’s pretty much what it said. Not only did all the couples interviewed have their children from previous relationships, the author even spells it out.

Yeah because all those members of Congress, not to mention all their staffers, live in DC right? I guess that’s why the traffic from Capitol Hill to the low-tax haven of Northern VA is so light.