Patterns of Homosexuality in the Non-Metropolitan United States In 2000

Dudley L. Poston, Jr., Texas A&M University
Rachel Cortes

This paper examines patterns and trends of same-sex unmarried partnering among males, and among females, in the nonmetropolitan counties of the United States in 2000. The 2000 census enumerated almost 1.2 million same-sex unmarried partners in the country. Although 85 percent resides in metropolitan areas, there is a balance of over 178,000 same-sex unmarried partners located in nonmetropolitan counties. Of these, over 82,000 are males, and over 94,000 are females. In this paper we examine the patterns of the prevalence of same-sex unmarried partnering. We argue that these data may be used to reflect the presence of partnered gays and lesbians in nonmetropolitan America, a subpopulation about which there is very little quantitative information. Also, we propose and test an assortment of ecological hypotheses relating characteristics of the nonmetropolitan counties with the gay and lesbian partnering rates.