Same-Sex Marriages Triple and Parenting Increases
My wife and I have been together for eighteen years and were forced to draw up an expensive will to try to protect each other in finances, hospital visitation, and end of life decisions. My wife’s friend knew the woman on a trip in Florida who was denied visitation to her dying partner before same-sex marriage was legalized in 2015. We were lucky that we had the education and resources to ensure our rights would be protected, which not everyone has, and demonstrates why marriage rights are so important. Prudential Financial Inc. recently did a survey of LGBT people and their marital status and financial situation. Here is a description of the study from Bloomberg News
Prudential surveyed 35,000 Americans online to find 1,376 people aged 25-70 who identify as LGBT. Those respondents ended up being far younger than in the 2012 survey: Some 47 percent were millennials aged 37 and younger. Bisexuals also made up a significantly bigger slice of the sample, at 52 percent, up from just 5 percent in 2012.
The original source is here
I like statistics so here is what they are:
The study listed the LGBT population at 6%
The breakdown in the survey was lesbian=15%, gays=%32, bisexual women=%31, bisexual men=18.72% other bisexual 2%, transgender=2%
Fully out lesbians=58%, gays=57%, bisexuals=23% (like other studies, this shows bisexuals are less likely to be out)
The marriage rate has more than tripled since 2012, having increased to 30% from 8% in the 2012 survey.
Young women are much more likely to identify as bisexual than in the past. Lesbians, and bisexual women, in particular, skew young in this survey: 45% of lesbian and 58% of bisexual respondents are Millennials.
LGBT people are not just clustered on big cities. They “live in every state and every type of community—from rural areas to big urban centers.”
Here are the earnings breakdowns: lesbians=$45,606, gays=$51,461, bisexual females=$35,980, bisexual males=$85,084, heterosexual females=$51,461, heterosexual males=$83,469. This survey says it is supposed to be representative of the US population, but the income numbers are so far off of what income averages are in the United States, I can’t even comment on this. Their chart seems to present this as individual incomes, but these are even high for household incomes. This isn’t representative and may be for people just using financial services. Also, several well-conducted studies show lesbians as individuals earn more money than straight women but not in this survey. The income for bisexual women is very low, but the survey skews very young for this demographic.
“Since 2012, there has been a significant increase in marriage among lesbian respondents (9% to 25%), gay respondents (6% to 17%)…” The study goes on to say many of these people had already been living together for a long time or had some other official legal status and now can enjoy full marriage equality.
The percentage of same-sex parents with kids has gone up among lesbian respondents (from 23% to 36%), gay male respondents (from 7% up to 15%).
LGBT people are more socially conscious. “Findings also suggest that the LGBT community cares deeply about social equality for all and that working with socially conscious firms is particularly important to LGBT respondents.” Go us.