Elaine Maccio, assistant professor in the School of Social Work, counts herself among the many same-sex couples living in East Baton Rouge Parish, and now the United States does too – officially.
The 2010 Census was the first to count cohabitating same-sex couples, and Maccio thinks the official recognition is great.
“You can’t serve a population until you know that they’re there,” she said.
But she also described the survey as “limited in what it captures,” seeing as it does not measure the number of gay people, but gay couples.
The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, using the Census data, created reports on each state’s concentration of same-sex couples by county or parish, the ratio of male to female same-sex couples and the proportions of same-sex couples raising children.
According to the Williams Institute’s report, East Baton Rouge Parish ranked second in Louisiana for the highest concentration of same-sex couples with a recorded 1,324 couples, behind Orleans Parish’s 1,931.
Baton Rouge also came in second behind New Orleans in population of same-sex couples with 762, followed by Shreveport, Lafayette and Metairie.
Of the 12,153 same-sex couples in Louisiana, 64 percent are female, and 36 percent are male. Twenty-six percent are raising children, and 74 percent are not.
Colin Miller, field director of Forum For Equality, called the new information “useful” for advocates involved in public policy related to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community in Louisiana.
“Obviously, it’s a visibility factor for us,” Miller said.
But the numbers are still undershot due to some couples not feeling comfortable registering the information, he added.
“It ain’t paradise down here,” he said but added, “Our culture, generally, is becoming more accepting of it.”
Maccio pointed out the adverse effects the numbers could draw, considering the prejudices still held against the LGBTQ community. It could cause those against LGBTQ rights to feel increasingly threatened, she warned.
Whether the data helps or hurts the cause is up to the people currently working for LGBTQ equality, who can now use these numbers to influence public policy, she said.
Spencer Roby, mathematics sophomore and treasurer of Spectrum, the University’s LGBTQ organization, agreed with Maccio that the information could be used for good or bad, but he believes the number of same-sex families raising children will help the most.
However you see it, he contended, “These are still families with children. Three thousand children gets more attention.”
One question that remains unanswered is why the population of female same-sex couples significantly outnumbers the male couples. New Orleans is the only city in Louisiana in which this is not the case.
Maccio thinks this could be due to women’s heightened value in relationships and communication.
“Women in general tend to be more relationship-oriented,” she said.
While the immediate effects of these new statistics are questionable, Miller, Maccio and Roby agree the statistics will prove highly beneficial for the LGBTQ rights movement.
“What makes this data exciting is what will happen next in the next Census,” Miller said.
 
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Contact Clayton Crockett at [email protected]