Suzanne Sheldon, left, and Melinda Sheldon pose for a photo on their wedding day in Vermont. The Sheldons, who married last year, are among a growing number of couples who identify themselves as living in same-sex households in Georgia, according to U.S. census data released Thursday. Those figures show the number of same-sex households reported in the state has increased by 55 percent over a decade, up from 19,288 in 2000 to 29,844 in 2010, a trend that experts say is expected to be reflected nationwide. (AP)ATLANTA-Because they are women, Melinda and Suzanne Sheldon cannot marry under the laws of their native Georgia. But their neighbors in a relatively rural part of the state were more accepting of their union, throwing the pair a party when they came home from their wedding in Vermont.
The Sheldons, who married last year, are among a growing number of couples who identify themselves as living in same-sex households in Georgia, according to U.S. census data released Thursday. Those figures show the number of same-sex households reported in the state has increased by 55 percent over a decade, up from 19,288 in 2000 to 29,844 in 2010, a trend that experts say is expected to be reflected nationwide.
The increases, recorded in all 18 states for which same-sex household numbers had been released by Thursday, are due in part to same-sex couples being more willing to report their household status, said Gary Gates, a demographer at the Williams Institute, a think tank at the University of California at Los Angeles that deals with issues of law and public policy related to sexual orientation and gender identity.
Some of the biggest increases have been recorded in the most conservative states, and that could reflect a growing comfort with evolving attitudes in areas that traditionally have been less accepting of same-sex relationships than other parts of the nation, Gates said. But he’s convinced that the rising numbers are not solely because of more willingness to be recorded officially.
“I’m fairly confident that, broadly, the increase is absolutely real because it’s been large everywhere,” Gates said.