More LGBT People Want to Start Families
April 26, 2006: A new study finds that more of us than ever want to be parents. This is from the San Francisco Chronicle.
Two-thirds of lesbians and a third of gay men in the United States plan to add children to their families over the next three years, according to a marketing survey to be released this week.
Those numbers have increased dramatically over the past four years, according to Jeffrey Garber, president of OpusComm Group, which conducted the annual survey of gays and lesbians with Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.
In 2002, just 15 percent of lesbians and 5 percent of gay men told the researchers they would add children to their families.
“People are saying they’re more comfortable with their sexuality, that they have a right to a life partner. And along with that — if they have a loving home — why not a child?” Garber said.
In the same time period, the proportion of gay people surveyed who reported being “out” increased from 93 to 97 percent.
Of those surveyed this year, 21 percent of lesbians and 5 percent of gay men said they currently have a child living at home.
The survey, conducted online, measures demographics, purchasing behaviors, media consumption and lifestyles of gays and lesbians. About 7,500 people completed this year’s hourlong survey; the survey was first conducted in 2001.
In politics, the survey found that gays and lesbians felt the most important criterion for candidates was support for same-sex marriage, and 61 percent of respondents said they always voted for a candidate based on his or her support of gay and lesbian issues.