Tag Archives: families

This kind of blows the old Jesse Helms image of North Carolina to hell…

Thank God!

From the Raleigh News and Observer:

Raleigh is one of the highest-ranked metropolitan areas in the nation for gay parents. Nearly one-third of the same-sex couples who live here are raising children under the age of 18.

The American Community Survey says Raleigh has the third-highest percentage of same-sex couples with kids among metro areas that have a population of more than 1 million. San Antonio is first, with 33.9 percent of same-sex couples raising children, and Jacksonville, Fla., is second, with 32.4 percent.

Southern cities tended to rank high in the survey, which was conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau and used population and housing data collected between 2005 and 2009.

Gary Gates, a senior research fellow at UCLA Law School, said he thinks the traditionally conservative South has more gay parents because people in the region tend to come out later in life, often after marrying and having children in heterosexual relationships.

Some cities with the highest concentrations of gays, such as San Francisco, aren’t ranked that high when it comes to same-sex couples with children, Gates said.

Ian Palmquist, executive director of Equality North Carolina, a gay rights organization, was not surprised to hear Raleigh ranked so high.

“Gay people from the more rural communities move to the Triangle because it is much more friendly and more supportive,” he said. “We know there are many same-sex couples raising children in North Carolina.”

Palmquist added that the same things that make North Carolina appealing to heterosexual couples also make it a good choice for same-sex couples.

via Raleigh No. 3 in gay parents – Family – NewsObserver.com.