Gallup one ups Census, claims almost 800,000 Americans in same-sex marriages

PRINCETON, N.J. (Christian Examiner) – Just in time for the Supreme Court's deliberation of same-sex marriage this summer, Gallup has published the findings of a new poll which indicates nearly 2 million Americans are part of a homosexual couple – and 780,000 of those have been married in states that allow same-sex marriage.

The survey data, based on nearly interviews conducted from Jan. 28-April 18, 2015, claimed 0.3% of all respondents identified themselves as being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender and married. Participants then had to answer a follow-up question to indicate their marriage was to a person of the same sex. According to Gallup, another 0.5% said they were involved in a domestic partnership, presumably in states without a law allowing same-sex marriages.

The polling organization extrapolated the data from the 81,000 survey participants and applied it to the 243 million adults living in the U.S. to arrive at their conclusion there are 390,000 same-sex married couples and another 600,000 homosexual domestic partnerships.

"At 990,000, Gallup's estimated number of same-sex married or domestic partner couples in the U.S. is significantly higher than past estimates derived from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS), which in 2013 put the number of same-sex couples at roughly 727,000. Of this group, more than 250,000 reported they were married.

The Census Bureau, however, has cautioned that the ACS estimates of married same-sex couples may not be reliable (too high) as they have determined that a large portion of recorded married same-sex couples may actually be married heterosexual couples who miscoded the sex of one of the spouses," Gallup reported. If so, Gallup's estimates would be even more out of balance with the Census numbers.

Gallup also reported in March on the cities with the highest percentage of homosexuals. The San Francisco area, long known for its acceptance of the gay, lesbian and transgender ideology, was the highest at 6.2% LGBT. However, large metropolitan areas in Washington and Oregon, Connecticut and Colorado also ranked high on the survey, as did the area around Austin, Texas – with 5.3% of its population identifying as LGBT.

Birmingham, Ala., had to lowest percentage of LGBT population of any area surveyed in the United States.