 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
|
|||||||||||||
| about us |
UCLA’s Williams Institute Publishes New Report on Asians and Pacific Islanders in Same-sex Couples in the United States Wednesday, August 10, 2006 UCLA School of Law
Media Contacts: LOS ANGELES—The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, has released a new study showing that over 38,000 Asians and Pacific Islanders (APIs) in the United States identified themselves as living with a same-sex partner during Census 2000. The study also shows that more than half of the country’s cohabiting API same-sex couples are raising children—over 17,000 children under the age of 18—and that these families face the same economic challenges as other API families in the United States. The study, “Asians and Pacific Islanders in Same-sex Couples in the United States: Data from Census 2000,” appears in Amerasia Journal’s recent forum, “Asian Americans in the Marriage Equality Debate” (volume 30:1). Gary J. Gates, co-author of the article and Senior Research Fellow at the Williams Institute said, “Census 2000 data quantify that Asians and Pacific Islanders represent a significant portion of the country’s gay and lesbian families. Many API same-sex couples, particularly those with children, are economically vulnerable, especially as they lack the support and protections that marriage provides to other American families.” Some of the study’s other key findings: • APIs in same-sex couples reflect the diversity of the general API population in the United States. Significant proportions of APIs in same-sex couples identified themselves as exclusively Filipino (18%), Chinese (17%), Asian Indian (11%), Vietnamese (8%), Japanese (7%), or Korean (7%). A significant proportion also identified themselves as belonging to two or more races (18%). • California had the largest number of APIs in cohabiting same-sex couples (13,288), followed by New York (4,775) and Hawaii (2,186). • In terms of their demographic and socio-economic profile, API individuals in same-sex couples look very similar to their counterparts in different-sex couples. They differ little in terms of citizenship, military service, income, education, and rates of employment. • API same-sex parents are raising their children with fewer resources than different-sex parents (both API and non-API). Parents in API same-sex couples have annual household incomes that are, on average, over $12,200 less than API parents in different-sex couples and over $8,100 less than non-API parents in different-sex couples. The full text of the Williams Institute article can be accessed at http://www.law.ucla.edu/willamsinstitute. The article was made possible through a generous grant by the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Foundation. ###
| ||||||