rs to analyze data at the national, state, city/town, and community levels.*
Specific Census 2000 findings include:
Same-gender couples live in 99.3% of all US counties.
Same-gender couples are raising children in at least 96% of all US counties.
Nearly one quarter of all same-gender couples are raising children.
Nationwide, 34.3% of lesbian couples are raising children, and 22.3% of gay male couples are raising children (compared with 45.6% of married heterosexual and 43.1% of unmarried heterosexual couples raising children).
Vermont has the largest aggregation of same gender-couples (∼1% of all households) followed by California, Washington, Massachusetts, and Oregon.
Regionally, the South has the highest percentage of same-gender couples who are parents; 36.1% of lesbian couples and 23.9% of gay couples in the South are raising children.
The second highest percentage is seen in the Midwest, where 34.7% of lesbian couples and 22.9% of gay couples are parenting children.
In the West, 33.1% of lesbian couples and 21.1% of gay couples are parents.
In the Northeast, 32.6% of lesbian couples and 21.7% of gay couples are raising children.
The states with the highest percentages of lesbian couples raising children are Mississippi (43.8%), South Dakota and Utah (42.3% each), and Texas (40.9%).
The states with the highest percentages of gay male couples raising children are Alaska (36%), South Dakota (33%), Mississippi (31%), and Idaho and Utah (30% each).
Six percent of same-gender couples are raising children who have been adopted compared with 5.1% of heterosexual married couples and 2.6% of unmarried heterosexual couples.†
Eight percent of same-gender parents are raising children with special health care needs, compared with 8.3% of heterosexual unmarried parents and 5.8% of heterosexual married parents.
Of same-gender partners raising children, 41.1% have been together for 5 years or longer, whereas 19.9% of heterosexual unmarried couples have stayed together for that duration.
It is difficult to determine exactly how many children are being raised by a gay or lesbian parent or parents because of many of the same factors that impact the determination of the number of same-gender couples. Estimates range between 1 and 10 million.5,6 The majority of these children were born in the context of a heterosexual relationship. Two thirds of these children live in the 42 states in which second-parent adoption is specifically forbidden or not guaranteed by statute or court ruling.‡
PUBLIC POLICIES REGARDING CHILDREN WITH GAY OR LESBIAN PARENTS
Census 2000 and related demographic research make it clear that parenting by same-gender couples is an established and growing part of the diverse structure of families in the United States. Public policies that aim to promote family stability and security typically are established without consideration for same-gender parents and their children, and they place these families at a disadvantage, as they do heterosexual unmarried parents, single parents, and extended-family caregivers.
Public policy designed to promote the family as the basic building block of society has at its core the protection of children's health and well-being. Children's wellbeing relies in large part on a complex blend of their own legal rights and the rights derived, under law, from their parents. Children of same-gender parents often experience economic, legal, and familial insecurity as a result of the absence of legal recognition of their bonds to their nonbiological parents. Current public-policy trends, with notable exceptions, favor limiting or prohibiting the availability of civil marriage and limiting rights and protections to same-gender couples.
Although some states and jurisdictions have recognized civil unions and domestic partnership arrangements, these legal constructs do not carry the same rights, benefits, and protections that are conferred by civil marriage. In 2004, the United States Government Accountability Office (formerly known as the General Accounting Office) identified a total of 1138 federal st