California's legalization of gay marriages could soon create controversy in other states, including rural areas, where gays and lesbians tend to have a lower profiles than in cities but can be a significant slice of the population.
“Unlike Massachusetts, which legalized gay marriage in 2004, California does not impose a residency requirement,” Karen Breslau writes for Newsweek. “While attention for now is focused on jubilant couples, the validity of the California marriages in other states ... is far from assured. Scores of homosexual couples who marry in California may request spousal benefits upon returning to their home states.”
The issue could be more problematic for homosexual couples in rural areas. As "cities nationwide host pride festivals and pride weeks throughout the summer, advocates say there's still room for improvement in rural areas, where gay populations remain small," L.A. Johnson writes for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Gary Gates, a senior research fellow at the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, estimated that approximately 20 percent of Pennsylvania same-sex couples live in rural areas. That could be higher than the national rate, which has been calculated only recently and is in flux.
Persad Center Inc. "operates Community SafeZone programs to promote acceptance of the (gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender/transsexual) community in underserved, outlying and rural areas, such as Washington County," Pa., Johnson writes. "The programs gather community members to discuss 'what it means to be safe at home, at work, at school, with one's doctor and in one's faith,' said Betty J. Hill, Persad Center's executive director." In years past gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender/transsexual (GLBT) people from Washington County and other rural areas were forced to relocate to large cities to, such as New York or San Francisco, to find gay communities, but this is no longer the case. "You can live in Washington, Pa., have a huge community of friends on the Internet and not be isolated and get the support that you need," Patrick Cameron to the Post-Gazette. "It's just really a phenomenal thing."
What is the climate for GLBT people and same-sex couples in your rural community?
“Unlike Massachusetts, which legalized gay marriage in 2004, California does not impose a residency requirement,” Karen Breslau writes for Newsweek. “While attention for now is focused on jubilant couples, the validity of the California marriages in other states ... is far from assured. Scores of homosexual couples who marry in California may request spousal benefits upon returning to their home states.”
The issue could be more problematic for homosexual couples in rural areas. As "cities nationwide host pride festivals and pride weeks throughout the summer, advocates say there's still room for improvement in rural areas, where gay populations remain small," L.A. Johnson writes for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Gary Gates, a senior research fellow at the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, estimated that approximately 20 percent of Pennsylvania same-sex couples live in rural areas. That could be higher than the national rate, which has been calculated only recently and is in flux.
Nearly a million gays and lesbians identified themselves as members of same-sex couples in the 2000 census, the first in which the Census Bureau collected data on "unmarried partner" households. Of the 594,745 same-sex partner households identified by the 2000 census, 14.7 percent were not in a metropolitan area, the Census Bureau reported. The Williams Institute reports that by 2005, the number of same-sex couples had risen more than 20 percent to 776,943 and an estimated 8.8 million gays, lesbians and bisexuals lived in the U.S.
What is the climate for GLBT people and same-sex couples in your rural community?
No comments:
Post a Comment