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SALT LAKE CITY — The most detailed information to date from the 2010 Census offers a count of same-sex couples, though both the government and others interested in the data say the count raises as many questions as it answers.
The tabulation for Utah, released on Thursday, says that of the 40,142 households identified as having unmarried partners, 2,699 were males with a male partner and 3,115 were females with a female partner.
- Of Utah's 40,142 households identified as having unmarried partners, 2,699 were males with a male partner and 3,115 were females with a female partner. This is about .7 percent
- New York has about .9 percent of all households with same-sex partners.
- Claifornia has about 1 percent same-sex households.
That means same-sex couples account for about .7 percent of all Utah households, compared to .9 percent in New York and 1 percent in California. The data have not yet been released for all states.
Indications are the percentage is up compared to previous census counts — the question is by how much. The Census Bureau, with the release of the latest information on Thursday, suggests data users "be careful" comparing the newest numbers to other estimates because of differences in data-collection methods. The bureau says it will issue a report later in the year that corrects errors that may have occurred when the data were captured.
Getting to an accurate count is important, says a published analysis by Gary J. Gates, Williams Distinguished Scholar at the Williams Institute at the UCLA Law School. The institute describes itself as a sexual orientation think tank. "Historically, U.S. Census Bureau data on same-sex couples have been a critical resource for informing the many national, state and local debates about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights."
Gates suggests the Census Bureau may have under counted same-sex couples because individuals may have been unwilling to disclose their domestic status on a government survey because of concerns about confidentiality. Same-sex couples may also have been missed because of data collection methods.
"For example, a younger couple residing in the home of a parent would not be identified" if the parent was counted as the head of the household, Gates said.
Gary J. Gates suggests the Census Bureau may have under counted same-sex couples because individuals may have been unwilling to disclose their domestic status on a government survey because of concerns about confidentiality.
On the other hand, Gates said incorrect coding on the census survey may have resulted in different-sex couples being incorrectly counted as a same-sex couple.
"Since there are more than a hundred different-sex couples for every same-sex couple, even a very small amount of errors among different-sex couples result in relatively large numbers of misidentified same-sex couples," he said. "Williams Institute scholars estimate that perhaps 25 percent of identified same-sex couples in 2010 Census may, in fact, be miscoded different-sex couples."
Brandie Balken, executive director of Equality Utah, agrees with the conclusion the data are not all-inclusive. She said the bottom line for her is that the data demonstrate "that there are gay and transgender people living across the state of Utah, contributing to their communities and raising their families."
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