Jan 26, 2007  |  By: JOSHUA LYNSEN  | COMMENTS     

The majority of U.S. gays are urban dwellers, but recent census data shows more gays are coming out in rural areas, with Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri and other heartland states reporting the largest percentage increases in their tally of gay residents from 2000 to 2005.

According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of gay Nebraskans leaped 71 percent during that time to reach 43,000.

The gay population also jumped 68 percent in Kansas, 58 percent in Iowa and 56 percent in Missouri at the same time. An estimated 72,500 gays now live in Kansas, with 62,500 in Iowa and 161,000 in Missouri.

Such tallies mean gays now comprise an average 3.4 percent of the population in the four states.

But Gary Gates, a Williams Institute researcher who specializes in gay demographics, said that gays generally aren’t relocating to middle America.

Instead, he said the increased heartland tally comes from gays there who are showing a new willingness to be counted.

“It shows where gay people are coming out,” he said. “It’s fascinating that it tends to be in these more socially conservative areas.”

Mark Shields, director of the Human Rights Campaign’s Coming Out Project, said the heartland numbers show that gays are “finding they can live openly” within their home community.

“In some ways, this is not breaking news,” he said. “In other ways, I think that for every year that goes by, what we see is a continual softening of the ground, where the general public’s understanding and comfort level for GLBT Americans is growing.”

Gates agreed. He said the trend is likely to continue for the next 10 to 20 years.

“You’re going to find less of this urban, rural divide over time,” he said. “That’s definitely occurred already, and I suspect it will continue.”

Most gays are urbanites

Despite the increased heartland numbers, the census data shows the bulk of America’s gays are urbanites.

Gates calculates that 90 percent of the nation’s 8.8 million gays, lesbians and bisexuals live in metropolitan areas. That matches the general division of the U.S. population.

Metro areas are often enticing career destinations for gays, whom he said tend to be more highly educated than the average U.S. citizen.

“Beyond that,” Gates said, “urban environments are spaces where gay people feel more safe, have social networks and easier access to gay-oriented social activities.”

The New York City and northern New Jersey metro area has the largest number of gay residents. An estimated 569,000 gays live there, making that population 4.1 percent gay.

The San Francisco Bay Area has an estimated 256,000 gay residents, the nation’s fourth largest tally. But the region — which is 8.2 percent gay — is the gayest metropolitan area in the U.S.

Washington, D.C., and its Maryland and Virginia suburbs have about 192,000 gay residents, making the area’s population 5 percent gay. Alone, the District is 8.1 percent gay with 32,500 gay residents.

Shields said gay Americans, like straight Americans, enjoy the amenities and opportunities metro areas afford.

“This is one more way in which GLBT Americans are just like everybody else in terms of where they want to live,” he said, “and, more broadly speaking, in terms of what their hopes and dreams and goals are.”

Urban v. rural life

Gates said other differences between urban gays and rural gays can be gleaned from census data.

He said the information shows that lesbians are slightly more likely than gay men to live in rural settings. Rural gays also tend to be demographically closer to their neighbors than urban gays.

It remains unclear, though, whether gays in urban or rural areas are safer.

Rebecca Stotzer, a Williams Institute researcher who handles hate crimes data, said there is no conclusive answer.

“It’s only now being examined as to which is riskier — to be the only out gay person in your community of 100 people, or to be one of many like in West Hollywood,” she said. “At this point, we don’t know.”

Federal data shows the majority of hate crimes against gays occur in metro areas, but Stotzer said that data is incomplete because many jurisdictions neither track nor report hate crimes statistics.

Stotzer said it could be years before researchers can accurately determine where hate crimes are occurring. In the meantime, gay activists are lobbying for a federal hate crimes bill that covers crimes motivated by hated of gays and transgender people.

Shields said gays across the U.S. should connect with their congressman. He noted the Williams Institute’s finding that each congressional district now has at least 6,500 gay residents.

“If every one, or even half of those 6,500 people would ...