Popular Culture Review Vol. 16, No. 1, Spring 2005 | Page 58

54
Popular Culture Review
Table 1 - Sexual Partnerships
Number of
WHM
BHM
Homosexual
(N=574)
(N = ll
Partners Ever
0
1
1
0%
0
9
10: 2
3-4
5-9
10-14
15-24
25-49
50-99
100-249
250-499
500-999
11; 1000 or m ore
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Demographics
B H M -W H M
1
2
3
3
8
.09
.09
9
15
17
15
28
.11
0%
0
2
4
5
6
6
18
15
11
14
19
WHF
(N=227) BHF
(N=64)
3%
9
15
31
16
10
8
5
1
1
0
0 5%
5
14
30
9
16
11
8
2
2
0
0
Demographics .04
BHF - WHF
.05
Pilot
Study
(N=458)
1%
3
4
5
8
12
20
13
14
20
.17
Aside from the fact that in order to be properly understood within the
parameters of the study, this table needs to be cross-referenced with the other
119 charts, tables, and graphs in the appendices of their book, Dr. Dobson seems
interested only in gay men. The “White Homosexual Female” (WHF) and
“Black Homosexual Female” (BHF) results contradict his assertion and,
according to current statistics reviewed by Gary Gates (a demographer at the
Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., and coauthor of The Gay and Lesbian
Atlas), two-thirds of the same-sex couples who applied for marriage licenses in
Massachusetts on May 17—the first day gay and lesbian couples could legally
be issued marriage licenses in this country—were women. This is not surprising
since 43% of lesbians are “coupled” at any one time. Other pertinent
demographics from May 17 in Massachusetts include:
•50% of the same-sex couples who applied for marriage
licenses had been together for at least a decade;
•The most predominant age group was 40 to 49 years-old (the
median age was 43);
•40% of those female couples said they had children in their
households.
According to the Adoption Family Center, there are an estimated 6 to
14 million children who have a gay or lesbian parent, and between 8 and 10
million children who are being reared in gay and lesbian households. Dobson
was right. These children will suffer the most if their parents are prohibited from
giving them the obvious and the subtle benefits legal marriag e confers. And
what about children who fmd themselves inexorably drawn to the same sex?
Currently these young people face a most difficult road, but: