FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jeffrey S. Garber, president OpusComm Group, Inc. 315 Highland Ave. Syracuse, NY 13203 jeff@opuscommgroup.com G / L Families with Children
Major Gay Study of 6,350, reveal 13% of the Respondents are Parents On "Being Out to Friends" -90% say "Yes" Fifty percent of the Respondents are Partnered Syracuse, New York - March 18, 2002 - Almost 13% of respondents to a survey of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered households have children under the age of 18 living at home. The GLCensus Partners (www.glcensus.org) 2001 Gay/Lesbian Consumer Online Census reveals that more than three-quarters of those households with children were lesbian households (78.4%). U.S. Census data indicates 29% of all U.S. households have a child under 18 living at home. The 2001 Gay/Lesbian Consumer Online Census, a GLCensus Partners study, is a joint partnership of OpusComm Group Inc., The S.I. Newhouse School at Syracuse University, and media/entertainment company GSociety Inc. It is the most in-depth study to date to explore the consumer patterns of gay and lesbian people. Of 6,351 respondents, 92.4 percent are from the United States. The survey took nearly 40 minutes to complete on average. Below are questions from three topic areas from the study: the presence of children, being "out" and gay and lesbian relationships. Presence of children Q: Do you have children under the age of 18 living at home? Almost 13 percent (12.9%) of respondents had children under the age of 18 living at home. More than three-quarters of these respondents were women (78 %). Of all survey respondents, 10.1 percent of females said they have children under the age of 18 living at home while 2.9 percent of males have children under the age of 18 living at home. Of all female respondents, 22.7 percent have children under the age of 18 at home while 5.2 percent of male respondents have children. When looking specifically at female respondents who identified as lesbian, gay or homosexual, there was not a significant difference in the gender of the children. There were, however, some differences in the gender of the children with men who identified as gay or homosexual. Children in female households were about evenly split male to female (49.1.% to 50.9%), but children in male households were more likely to be male than female (60.7% boys compared to 39.3% girls). Amy Falkner of Syracuse University is the lead researcher on the project and makes this observation, "Most commonly, gays and lesbians become parents through a previous heterosexual relationship/marriage or through adoption, artificial insemination, or a surrogate. Obviously, the options are more limited for a single gay man or gay male couple, who therefore may need to rely on the adoption method more. Given a choice of gender for their child, they may feel better suited to raising a boy than a girl. Also, for most foreign adoptions, if a person applies as a single parent, or if the applicants are a same-sex couple, then the adopted child must be of the same gender." Of those respondents who said they did not have children under the age of 18 living at home, 1.8 percent said they were a parent of a child under the age of 18 and had joint custody; 1.5 percent said they were a parent of a child under the age of 18 but did not have custody. Being "out" Q: Are you out to your immediate family, friends and/or at work? Being out to friends was most prevalent with more than 9 out of 10 respondents (91.7%) saying their friends know they are gay. 78.1 percent were out to family members with 64.4 percent out at work. Less than five percent of the respondents were not out (4.8%) at all. When considering age, the 25-34 year-olds were out to friends in the greatest percentage (93.1%). All groups were near the 9 out of 10 level. The 65+ age group was at the low end of the spectrum, with 87.5% being out 65+ to friends. Nearly 8 out of 10 respondents age 25-54 were out to family members. The percentages were lower for 55-64 (74.6%), 18-24 (69.8%) and 65+ (60.4%). The younger and older age groups were also less likely to be out at work with 52.1 percent of 18-24 year-olds out at work compared to 35.4 percent of the 65+ group. In all other age brackets, at least 6 out of 10 respondents 65+ said they were out at work, with nearly 7 out of 10 35-44 year-olds (69.1%) saying they were out at work. GLCensus founder Jeffrey Garber, president of OpusComm Group, offers this explanation, "Most respondents were comfortable being out to friends, but there were age differences when it came to being out to family and at work. Generally, the youngest and oldest age groups were less likely to divulge this information, particularly in the workplace. The youngest workers may still be struggling with their identity and just starting their careers while for the 55+ group, this may be a generational decision. For all groups, being out at work may vary by geography. It is still legal in 39 states to fire people based on their sexual orientation. No federal law protects lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered workers from discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity." Relationship status, living arrangements and length of relationship Q: What (item) most accurately describes your current same-sex relationship status? Depending on answer above, respondents received one of the following questions: Q: What is your present living arrangement? Q: Do you and your partner live in the same residence? The 2001 Gay/Lesbian Consumer Online Census reveals that more than half of the respondents are living in a committed relationship. "Gay men, especially, have long had the reputation for being lone wolves, moving from partner to partner in short term relationships," Garber said. "Our study shows this is not necessarily the case." More than half of respondents were in a committed relationship with 49 percent saying they were partnered and 3 percent stating they had a civil union ceremony or were married. (Same-sex marriage was allowed in the Netherlands at the time of the survey.). Of those respondents who were in a committed relationship, 82.5 percent lived in the same residence. 28.1 percent of respondents considered themselves single versus 17.2 percent who said they were single and dating. Of those respondents who said they were single or single and dating, 53.1 percent lived alone while 18.0 percent shared a residence with a member of the same sex; 15.7 percent lived with their parents. Relationship status varied by gender. Female respondents were more likely to be in partnerships (56.4 percent of women versus 43 percent of men) or to have had a civil union or same-sex marriage ceremony (5-percent of women compared to 1.5 percent of men). A third of male respondents (33.2%) said they were single while nearly a fifth (19.9%) said they were single and dating. Of males who identified themselves as gay or homosexual, 44.2 percent said they were in a partnership, 32.6 percent were single and 19.8 percent were single and dating. Of women who identified themselves as lesbian, gay or homosexual, 59.7 percent said they were in a partnership, 20.8 percent were single and 13.1 percent were single and dating. Of bisexual males (n=153), 22.2 percent said they were in a partnership while 62.7 percent were either single or single and dating. For bisexual women (n=268), 34.7 percent said they were in a partnership and 47.8 percent said they were either single or single and dating. The bases for transgendered (15 for men and 33 for women) were very small. Garber adds, "Gay characters on TV are more prevalent than before, although they often aren't shown as being in committed relationships, so this information may be a bit of a surprise to some people. Committed relationships makes boring television, but it’s the reality in about half of our respondents’ households." Q: What is the length of your current relationship? Q: Have you and your partner had a commitment ceremony? Of those respondents who said they were in a partnership, 32.9 percent said they had been together 1-3 years and 26 percent had been together 4-7 years. 15.6 percent had been together less than a year, while at the other end of the spectrum, 13.7 percent had been together a dozen years or more. Of those respondents who said they were in a partnership, there were gender differences. Nearly a third of men in the study were in relationships of at least eight years (32.2%) compared to a fifth (19.2 %) of women. Conversely, 80.7 percent of women were in relationships of seven years or less compared to 67.7 percent of men. Of those in a relationship, 18.1 percent said they had a commitment ceremony, civil union or marriage. Of these 595 couples, the majority (58%) were lesbians, followed by gay men (32.4%), bisexuals (6.6%), transgendered (1.7%) homosexual (.7%) and other self label (.7%). When looking at gender and commitment ceremony participation, 68.3 percent were women; 31.7 percent were men. Syracuse University's Falkner interpolates the data to represent, "A factor in the length of relationship question may be the age distribution of the respondent base. Proportionately, there are more 18-24 year old women in the female base than there are 18-24-year-old men in the male base (19% of women compared to 14.7% of men). Conversely, there is a slightly older skew to the male base (21.3% of male base is age 45+ while 16.6% of the female base is 45+)." "These numbers significantly change the perception of the average gay or lesbian person," said Cary Gilbert, vice president of GSociety (a gay/lesbian media-based company and partner of the GLCensus study). "The stigma of being gay has been enormously lessened in the United States over the past three decades and gays and lesbians are more open about who they really are, as evidenced by the percentages of people who are ‘out’. America may find the profile different than they had anticipated." Methodology "2001 Gay/Lesbian Consumer Online Census" A Syracuse University, OpusComm Group, GSociety Study -2001 © http://www.glcensus.org The 2001 Gay/Lesbian Consumer Online Census was fielded over the period July 9-August 20, 2001. Survey respondents were recruited through a publicity campaign utilizing both Internet and print media placements, and word of mouth referrals were encouraged. The target population was adults aged 18+ who self-identify as either gay, lesbian, homosexual, bisexual, or transgendered and participated in a 40- minute online study. Full detail of methodology is available by contacting: jeff@opuscommgroup.com Entire survey Summary: Base for the entire survey is 6,351 respondents. Of those who identified a gender, 3,482 were male (54.8%) and 2,803 were female (44.1%); 1 percent chose not to identify a gender. Respondents ranged in age from 18 to 80 and the median age of the respondent base was 35. Most respondents were U.S.-based (5,869 respondents or 92.4% of base). Canada had the next highest participation level with 194 respondents (3.1%). Overall, there was participation from 51 countries. GLCensus Partners (www.glcensus.org): "The World’s leader in GLBT Consumer Research" The S.I. Newhouse School at Syracuse University (www.syracuse.edu) - One of the world’s leading academic and research institutions in the field of communications. OpusComm Group, Inc. (www.opuscommgroup.com) - Innovative Advertising, Marketing, Communication and Public Relations experts on the gay/lesbian market . GSociety, Inc. (www.gsociety.com) - A media/entertainment company whose reach and distribution channels target the millions of gay and lesbian consumers worldwide. For further information contact Jeffrey Garber, president, OpusComm Group, at (315)422-6250 or jeff@opuscommgroup.com. Full highlights of this study on income, politics, consumer behavior, media habits, relationships and other findings are available at www.glcensus.org IMPORTANT NOTICE: IN GRANTING BROADCAST/PRINT PERMISSION TO PUBLICIZE ANY/OR ALL PORTIONS OF "2001 GAY/LESBIAN CONSUMER ONLINE CENSUS" You are authorized to quote from this report only if credited as follows "GLCensus : A Syracuse University, OpusComm Group, GSociety partnership". You may also want to add: "For more information please visit http://www.glcensus.org" # # # |
