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Interracial Couples More Common In Same-Sex Relationships, The US Census Finds
The American Community Survey finds that diversity in the queer community doesn't just end with sexual identity.
A new report from the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey backs up what we've all witnessed, that queer couples are more likely to be interracial than their straight counterparts.
According to the Bureau’s survey, approximately 31 percent of same-sex marriages are between interracial couples, compared to just 19 percent of straight couples. The fact also holds true for unmarried couples, where 34 percent of same-sex couples are interracial, whereas only 19 percent of opposite-sex couples are.
Despite RuPaul Charles and Georges LeBar providing an excellent example of a successful interracial couple since getting together in the ‘90s and then married in 2017, the percentage of unmarried interracial same-sex couples has skyrocketed since 2008 when it was only at 11 percent.
The survey also found that more male same-sex marriages were interracial (37 percent) versus female same-sex marriages (25 percent). The same is true for unmarried same-sex couples, where 39 percent of male and only 29 percent of female same-sex relationships were interracial.
Queer celebrity couples are proof positive of this survey’s results. Wanda and Alex Sykes, Raven Symone and Miranda Pearman-Maday, Robin Roberts and Amber Laign, Samira Wiley and Lauren Morelli, and Jerry Dixon and Mario Cantone are all in successful LGBTQ+ interracial marriages.
There were approximately 1.3 million same-sex couple households found in 2022 in the US, with 740,000 of those being married and 540,000 being unmarried. Even though the rate of same-sex couples being employed didn’t differ significantly between male and female couples, the median household income for female same-sex couples was only $98,420, whereas same-sex male couples made $127,900.
More same-sex married couples were employed (62 percent) than opposite-sex couples (49 percent), but more opposite-sex couples owned their own homes (82 percent) than same-sex couples (73 percent).
That’s not all, same-sex couples are younger on average than their straight counterparts, at 52.9 years for opposite-sex couples and only 48.6 years for same-sex ones. In an interesting turn, those numbers are flipped for unmarried couples. The average age of same-sex unmarried couples was 40.9 years and just 39.8 years for opposite-sex couples.
Ariel Messman-Rucker is an Oakland-born journalist who now calls the Pacific Northwest her home. When she’s not writing about politics and queer pop culture, she can be found reading, hiking, or talking about horror movies with the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network.
Ariel Messman-Rucker is an Oakland-born journalist who now calls the Pacific Northwest her home. When she’s not writing about politics and queer pop culture, she can be found reading, hiking, or talking about horror movies with the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network.
