|
|
Statewide, 0.9 percent of couples sharing homes are gay, Census 2000 figures show. In Fredericksburg, 1.2 percent of couples living together are gay--a figure that ranks Fredericksburg 15th out of Virginia's 135 counties and cities.
"These numbers are crucial," said Donald Rallis, a Mary Washington College geography professor who is gay. "If people know there are gay and lesbian people around them, it's less easy for them to be homophobic and discriminate."
Brian Norton, a bartender at Merriman's restaurant in Fredericksburg, said he considers the area--especially downtown--hospitable to gays.
"I'm single now, but at the time I was dating, I felt very comfortable holding hands with my boyfriend," said Norton, 22. "Even in a quaint little tourist town, there's a homosexual crowd."
Gay couples clearly remain a minority in a region, state and nation where households are far more often occupied by married couples. But the data released yesterday provides evidence that gay couples live beyond just metropolitan enclaves.
Gary Steinke and Randy Damren, partners for 19 years, share a home in rural Caroline County, where 42 gay couples reported living together.
"We're surprisingly like any other couple who doesn't have kids," said Steinke, 53, who works for Williams-Sonoma in Richmond. "We go to work, come home, fix dinner, feed the dogs, wash the cars, take care of the lawn."
Gay couples live in every corner of the state, from the suburbs of Washington--where their numbers are highest--to the hills of Appalachia. They share homes in more than 97 percent of Virginia's census tracts (small regions comprised of several neighborhoods).
"When you're young and just coming out, you think you're unique," said Damren, 60, who works in tech services at the Central Rappahannock Regional Library in Fredericksburg. "But we're all over the place. I know gay people who are grandfathers."
Virginia is a conservative state where homosexual sex remains illegal. But Rallis said Fredericksburg, especially in the past decade, has become a more tolerant place.
"When I arrived in Fredericksburg [about 10 years ago], there was no gay and lesbian bar, and there is now," Rallis said, referring to Merriman's. "I think Fredericksburg is becoming more and more enlightened as it becomes more a part of metropolitan Washington."
Every Virginia county has at least four cohabiting gay couples, the census shows. Fairfax County has 2,088--the most in Virginia.
In all, 13,802 gay couples share homes in Virginia; 561 do in the Fredericksburg region.
"I think these numbers are very important, especially for young people who are coming out, so they know they're not alone," Rallis said.
Gay-rights advocates hope the numbers will help them lobby for laws beneficial to gays, such as ones that would give gays access to their partners' health benefits.
"Gay families are living in the district of every state delegate," said David Smith, spokesman for the D.C.-based Human Rights Campaign. "And that, in our view, provides a compelling argument to lawmakers that it's their responsibility to take care of gay families as well."
The census didn't count the entire gay population. It just counted gay couples who live together and were willing to identify themselves as gay partners.
Not everyone was, so Smith and others say they're certain the census undercounted cohabiting gay couples.
Still, the tally is considered the Census Bureau's most accurate count of gay couples ever.
Data for the entire nation hasn't been released yet, so no national figures are available.
In Virginia, Arlington County has the highest percentage of gay couples, with 3.1 percent.
In the Fredericksburg region, including the city and eight counties, 0.8 percent of couples living together are gay. That's 561 gay couples (283 male-male, 278 female-female) out of 80,706 cohabiting couples overall.
Most couples living together--91 percent--are married, while 8 percent are unmarried heterosexuals.
Stafford County has the smallest percentage of gay couples living together regionally, with 0.5 percent.
The census didn't ask people whether they are gay. It asked people sharing a home to describe their relationship.
They could identify themselves as married couples, roommates, relatives or unmarried partners. The census also asked each person's gender, making it possible to identify same-sex couples.
In 1990, gay couples could identify themselves as unmarried partners as well. But comparisons between 1990 and 2000 are not valid, the Census Bureau says.
That's because some same-sex couples each year identified themselves as spouses. When that happened in 1990, statisticians classified them as something else--such as roommates or even male-female spouses.
In 2000, however, gay couples who called themselves spouses were classified as same-sex, unmarried partners.
That makes this year's count more accurate. So, Rallis thinks, do social changes that have made it easier for gay couples to be open.
"There's really no reason to believe the number of homosexual people has changed," Rallis said. "It's the number who are willing to come out that's changed."