Study: Gay and lesbian couples found to be most impoverished, putting their children at risk

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A June 2013 study from The Williams Institute shows that partnered gays and lesbians make up the most impoverished couples in America. This phenomenon puts their children especially at risk for economic insecurity.

“African American children in gay male households have the highest poverty rate (52.3%) of any children in any household type, and the rate for children living with lesbian couples is 37.7%.,” the study notes. “This poverty gap is highest for children aged 0-5 who live with same-sex couples.”

Roughly 20 percent of children overall were living in poverty in 2011 according to the U.S. Census.

“New Patterns of Poverty in the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Community,” authored by M.V. Lee Badgett, Laura E. Durso, and Alyssa Schneebaum, also found that black same-sex couples are at least twice as likely to be impoverished as coupled, different-sex African-Americans.

Black men in same sex couples are over six times as likely to be poor as are white men in same-sex couples. Black women in lesbian couples are three times as likely to be impoverished as are white women in same-sex partnerships.

Poverty rates were found to be lower for women in lesbian partnerships in states with marriage equality and domestic partnership laws, and legal protections for gays and lesbians that outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation. Study authors also found that “poverty rates are lower for all couples in states with those policies.”

For example, in California, lesbian and gay adults are less impoverished than heterosexual and bisexual people. Study authors believe this is due to the progressive laws and attitudes of the state.

Simultaneously, poverty rates for male same-sex couples in large urban centers were less than poverty rates for heterosexual couples in major metropolitan areas.

According to an earlier Williams Institute report, the poverty rate overall in America rose to 15 percent in 2011, with lesbian, gay, bisexual people being among the most vulnerable to poverty.

Follow Alexis Garrett Stodghill on Twitter @lexisb.