Williams Institute

The U.S. Census Bureau says the number of self-identified same-sex couples in Iowa rose dramatically between 2000 and 2010, up 77 percent to 6,540 couples. “Most of this increase is probably a result of increased willingness of same-sex couples to identify themselves,” said Gary Gates, a demographer at the Williams Institute. He believes gay and lesbian couples in IA in 2000 probably were more likely to hide their relationships from census workers.

A report released by UCLA's Williams Institute shows a forty percent increase in households headed by same-sex couples in New York state over the last ten years. In the 2010 census, more than 65,000 households reported as same-sex couples, or about nine out of every 1,000 homes in the state.

"My hunch, based on past census data reporting, is that people feel dramatically more comfortable giving a true report of their household composition," Lis Maurer, LGBT program director at Ithaca College, said.

Growing numbers of gay couples across the country are adopting, according to census data. The percentage of same-sex parents with adopted children has risen sharply. About 19 percent of couples raising children reported having an adopted child in the house in 2009, up from just 8 percent in 2000, according to the Williams Institute. Advocates for gay families can point to legal victories in Florida last year and in Arkansas this passed spring.

Alfred Kinsey said in the 40's that 10 percent of the men he surveyed were "predominantly homosexual." However, Gary Gates, from the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy, derived from 5 studies that the US has about 4 million adults who identify as being gay - representing 1.7 percent of the 18-and-over population.

The State of Florida could save $3.4 million dollars in the first year after lifting its gay adoption ban, according to The Williams Institute, at the UCLA School of Law.