Same-Sex Couple Households in Cities Across the US

[The North One]

Originally Posted by JManc

I know it's anecdotal but pretty much every gay and lesbian I know of (typically over 40) are in long term committed relationships or married.

Well yeah, where you as a somewhat older straight person with a white collar job will come across gay people they're much more likely to be sane lol. But the gays you find going out not so much.

[The North One]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

The data isn't useless or misleading - it's a measurement of exactly what it says it is: the number of same-sex couple households. Not meant to be just a tally of the number of gay people.

Okay, well there's nothing really to infer from that. So it's boring data I guess.

[AviationGuy]

Originally Posted by JManc

I know it's anecdotal but pretty much every gay and lesbian I know of (typically over 40) are in long term committed relationships or married.

A lot are, and I've noticed it being mostly older was well. But I know a lot who are not. Would be good to know the true percentages.

[DCReid]

Here are two interesting articles that are not under a paywall I found that may clarify, although one has older data:

https://news.gallup.com/poll/329975/...ex-spouse.aspx


https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.e...s=true#density

[wwmiv]

Roughly one in ten. That’s a HUGE portion of the population unmarried and lonely. The social effects of which are HUGE.

[Yuri]

There are more LGBT people married/living with people of the opposite sex (20.6%) than with same-sex (16.7%). And no surprise, the vast majority are single (50.5%) as opposed to 22.9% amongst straight people.

I guess it would be quite similar down here in Brazil/São Paulo.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by wwmiv

Roughly one in ten. That’s a HUGE portion of the population unmarried and lonely. The social effects of which are HUGE.

First of all, it is ridiculous to declare that everyone who is not legally married is "lonely."

Second, gay and lesbian couples in most of the nation could not marry until 2015. What sort of massive, radical shift did you expect to see in marriage statistics in a mere nine years?

Third, we lost hundreds of thousands of American gay men to AIDS. They would have been among the oldest living cohorts of LGBT+ folks today. We will never know if, had they lived, they would have eventually settled into marriages (or civil unions, etc.) as they aged. The LGBT+ population skews young because of those deaths, and young people (gay and straight) are delaying marriage longer and longer.

[JManc]

My mom's cousin was in a same-sex relationship for 40+ years until his partner died about five years ago, he's in his mid-80's now and they were pretty lowekey about their relationship and had no interest in marrying even after Obergefell. One of my oldest friends (my age) has been in a relationship for about ten years and got married about 7 years ago and even she was pretty lowkey about broadcasting her marital status. Her family is a bunch of creeker rednecks...

[craigs]

Originally Posted by Yuri

There are more LGBT people married/living with people of the opposite sex (20.6%) than with same-sex (16.7%).

That's no surprise. The majority of LGBT+ respondents in that poll identified as bisexual.

[Yuri]

Coincidentally, Brazilian Statistical Office (IBGE) realeased today the numbers for marriages for 2022: 970,041 marriages (and 420,000 divorces) of which 11,022 were same-sex. An all-time high.

Since 2013, the year same-sex was legalized in the whole country, 70,642 same-sex marriages were performed in the country out of 10 million marriages during this period (2013-2022).

https://noticias.uol.com.br/cotidian...rcios-ibge.htm

[austlar1]

I am a 78 year old single gay white male. I lost probably half of my similarly aged gay friends (at least 15-20 people that I knew very well and countless others that I knew casually) in the HIV catastrophe. Some of them were in relationships when they died. Others were single. Today I only have a half dozen or so similarly aged gay friends scattered around the country. Three of them are legally married to same sex spouses. The rest are single and live alone. All of them seem comfortable with their situations. I also have several younger gay friends. About half of them are legally married to same sex spouses. One couple is currently in the process of divorcing. I know that is pretty unreliable sample, but I do feel that the advent of legal gay marriage has encouraged a lot of gay people to take the plunge. Most of them seem to stay married. Others stay coupled without any legal arrangements. I'd love to see the stats on that actually. I'm sure they're out there somewhere. Gay lifestyles for younger people still seem geared towards partying and hook-ups. A lot of this is fueled by the proliferation of instant hook-up apps. I'm sure my generation would have used them too. My gut instinct tells me that, as a general rule, gay people are forming domestic relationships much more frequently than in years past.

[AviationGuy]

Originally Posted by austlar1

I am a 78 year old single gay white male. I lost probably half of my similarly aged gay friends (at least 15-20 people that I knew very well and countless others that I knew casually) in the HIV catastrophe. Some of them were in relationships when they died. Others were single. Today I only have a half dozen or so similarly aged gay friends scattered around the country. Three of them are legally married to same sex spouses. The rest are single and live alone. All of them seem comfortable with their situations. I also have several younger gay friends. About half of them are legally married to same sex spouses. One couple is currently in the process of divorcing. I know that is pretty unreliable sample, but I do feel that the advent of legal gay marriage has encouraged a lot of gay people to take the plunge. Most of them seem to stay married. Others stay coupled without any legal arrangements. I'd love to see the stats on that actually. I'm sure they're out there somewhere. Gay lifestyles for younger people still seem geared towards partying and hook-ups. A lot of this is fueled by the proliferation of instant hook-up apps. I'm sure my generation would have used them too. My gut instinct tells me that, as a general rule, gay people are forming domestic relationships much more frequently than in years past.

I just wish there was a good app for finding real relationships with other seniors. Haven't found anything yet. I would love to find someone, as I'm living in a 55+ apartment community of straight, conservative seniors. There is an older male couple here, but I haven't met them yet. I miss the relationship I had for 16 years. I would have been willing to get married but the relationship ended before the 2015 SCOTUS decision. Probably good that we didn't get married because it would have ended in divorce, looking back.

I moved out of Austin for family reasons, which were legitimate, but I keep hoping I'll be able to return some day while I can still enjoy it. Depends on whether circumstances change.