Introduction
Census 2000, according to Lee Condon (2001), may be remembered as the first gay and lesbian census because the federal head-counters made a first attempt to enumerate gay and lesbian households. As the data were released, it was revealed that 1.2 million same-sex "unmarried partners" had been identified. Single gays and lesbians were left out of this part of the census count, while a study commissioned by a national gay lobby group called the Human Rights Campaign estimated that Census 2000 undercounted gay and lesbian couples by a factor of 62 percent (Condon, 2001).
Regardless of whether or not Census 2000 depicted an accurate profile of the gay and lesbian families or partnerships in the United States, what was revealed by this census effort is that an increasing number of American households are populated by gay or lesbian partners who may have children from previous relationships, adoption, or other procreative efforts (Condon, 2001).
The proliferation of gay and lesbian or same-sex couples in the United States was underscored by Census 2000. It reported such couples in 99.3 percent of the counties throughout the United States, leaving only 22 counties with no federal record of having gay or lesbian residents. What these data suggest is a gradual move toward the normalization of gay and lesbian partnerships or families.
According to Condon (2001), a recent study of gay and lesbian voting habits conducted by Harris Inter-Active revealed that 30 percent of gay and lesbian Americans are living together in committed relationships. It is possible that there are actually 3.1 million gay and lesbian couples in such partnerships and it is also possible that as much as 5 percent of the total national adult population of 209 million may be gay or lesbian. These data lead to the purpose of this report, which is to study the historical process of normalization of gay and lesb...