Mississipi Leads the Way

[Paul_and_Paco]

Here is a little tidbit from the Land of Cotton. Notice the last bit about Gay adoptions.

http://www.towleroad...in-himself.html

[Cole Parker]

Mississippi has more same-sex couples raising children together than any other state? Incredible! I'd guess MS is one the smaller states, population-wise. Certainly not in the top half. That's just an amazing statistic.

C

[Gee Whillickers]

I have to admit I'm surprised. If you had asked me to guess the order of places with the highest number of same-sex couples raising children to the lowest, I would have placed Mississippi somewhere near the bottom. Shows what I know.

[bi_janus]

A comment that comes purely from living with biostatisticians: the study says that Mississippi has the highest proportion of same sex couples raising children, not the largest number.

[Paul_and_Paco]

Huh? You know, you are right. You can make statistics say just about anything you want. The 2011 estimated census gives Mississippi 2,978,512 people... not many, right? Compared to Texas with 25,674,681, or California with 37,691,912, or New York at 19,465,197.

"Using 2010 U.S. Census data, The Williams Institute, a gender orientation and identity public-policy organization based at the University of California, finds that 901,997 same-sex couples live in the United States. Nationally, 22 percent of same-sex couples are raising children, but in Mississippi 33 percent are raising children. Mississippi has a total of 6,286 same-sex couples."--Jackson Free Press.

Still just statistics, but some pretty convincing numbers.

[Cole Parker]

A comment that comes purely from living with biostatisticians: the study says that Mississippi has the highest proportion of same sex couples raising children, not the largest number.

OK, that makes better number sense, but it's still amazing when coupled with the fact the people in the state are against gay marriage by 78% to 22%. How can a state that is so against gay marriage, and by extrapolation against gays and gay rights of any kind, have such a high proportion kid raising families be same-sex couples? Boggles the mind.

C

[Graeme]

OK, that makes better number sense, but it's still amazing when coupled with the fact the people in the state are against gay marriage by 78% to 22%. How can a state that is so against gay marriage, and by extrapolation against gays and gay rights of any kind, have such a high proportion kid raising families be same-sex couples? Boggles the mind.

C

It's not "have such a high proportion kid raising families be same-sex couples?". It's out of the same-sex couples, a high proportion are raising kids.

Taking an extreme example, if there were only three same-sex couples in the state and one of those three couples was raising kids, the percentage would be the afore-mentioned 33%. That's a high percentage of same-sex couples with children when compared to all same-sex couples, but it doesn't mean that there is a high percentage of same-sex couples when compared to all couples.

[Paul_and_Paco]

Graeme, correct me if I am wrong, but does this not mean the same sex couples in Mississippi are more open to raising children, than other more liberal states with a higher number of same sex couples? That would make it a gay issue, not a population issue?

Personally, I am just happy to be part of the aforementioned 33%, and might be a little bit biased. Not that it helps against the 78% of the population that would not spit on us if we were on fire.

[Graeme]

It would depend a lot on the numbers. If they have a small population that is being counted, the 33% could just be natural variation and not particularly meaningful. For example, in my extreme example, it would only take one other couple to have children to jump the percentage to 66%....

There's also state laws to take into account. In some places there are constraints on same-sex couples adopting or fostering (though not about rearing natural born children, I believe). I don't know what the laws are in Mississippi, or how local attitudes affect matters. As an example, here in Melbourne there is a lot of support for gay couples to foster children, even if the law currently prevents adoption (I think). That local support from the authorities means that gay couples considering raising children would find it easier than in a place where the local authorities frown upon same-sex couples raising children.

[colinian]

There's a book that my dad got for his birthday when he was 12 (in 1976) and that he gave me on my 12th birthday (in 2001, 25 years after it was given to him by my granddad). It's "How to Lie With Statistics" by Darrell Huff with illustrations by Irving Geis, Vail-Ballou Press, 1954. It's available in paperback and for the Kindle (though the publication date on that version is 1993). Chapter 9 addresses the question about using statistical terminology that is easy to misinterpret. The title of this chapter is "How to Statisticulate" (which sounds like a dirty word) and like all of the chapters in this book is fun and funny and worth pondering.

Colin

[Gee Whillickers]

There's a book that my dad got for his birthday when he was 12 (in 1976) and that he gave me on my 12th birthday (in 2001, 25 years after it was given to him by my granddad). It's "How to Lie With Statistics" by Darrell Huff with illustrations by Irving Geis, Vail-Ballou Press, 1954. It's available in paperback and for the Kindle (though the publication date on that version is 1993). Chapter 9 addresses the question about using statistical terminology that is easy to misinterpret. The title of this chapter is "How to Statisticulate" (which sounds like a dirty word) and like all of the chapters in this book is fun and funny and worth pondering.

Colin

Yup, this was required reading during a course I took on statistics in university. It made me look at any news report with a statistic in it in a completely different way.

[Graeme]

Interesting that you should mention that book, Colin, as it was also recently mentioned on a science forum I read from time-to-time in relation to results in complex fields such as biomedicine and economics, and the wording of the press releases that accompany those results. Studies on sexual orientation (eg. studying the effect of gay parenting on children) are another area where the results are statistical, and therefore have to be viewed carefully to truly understand what they are saying (if anything).

[blue]

Graeme has already brought it up, but I'd point out:

The issue of same-sex couples raising children depends on a few things. Is the child a natural (biological) child of one of the parents, perhaps from a previous marriage/relationship? Or is the child a fostered or adopted child? Biological children may remain with a parent, or a parent may be given custody, especially if the other parent is unreliable, a bad risk. (Given my state's general views on homosexuality, it says something that, say, a lesbian parent I know was given custody of her two children from her previous marriage. The ex-husband was deemed unfit in some way.) With an overcrowded foster/adoptive/child-welfare/protective-services system, it may likewise be preferable to place a child with a same-sex couple, than for that child to remain in "the system" in group homes or the like. Again, the bias against same-sex persons as persons, couples, or parents still can enter into it, but the pressure on the system and the compassion and good sense of the social worker and judge can enter into it. Yes, there is still an attitude, at least among much of the public, that "they'll turn that poor child gay!" Um, no, that child's sexual orientation is his or her own, and he or she is not likely to wake up and "choose" to be gay or choose a "lifestyle." Not unless that child (or adolescent) happens to be gay anyway. In which case, it would give the young person a family who understand him or her and won't be prejudiced. -- My point is just that social and attitudinal factors, belief systems, enter into whether a same-sex couple can be parents.

I don't know the figures for Texas. I'm curious. In Texas, yes, there are same-sex couples who have biological children, and likely many who are raising foster or adopted kids.

That is one of the main things that got to me most as a teen, when I began realizing I was gay. I wanted a family and kids and I didn't believe I could have them. If I'd known a gay man or a gay couple could raise kids, it might've helped me accept myself a lot sooner.

Good for those Mississippi couples.

One Mippippippi, Two Mippippippi.... ;) (in-joke)

[JamesSavik]

Gay people in Mississippi live in an odd twilight zone. We are here but others pretend that we are not.

They say the vilest kind of bullshit and when we call them on it, they say- see they're angry and unstable too.

It is best for me not to mix with that sort.