Portland, OR: Not quite this gay, but getting there
Edit: I just realized this article was from Jan 6th, 2010, not June 6th, 2010 as I previously reported. My apologies for this error. –Perry
The Portland Tribune has claimed in an article that our fair city is getting gayer, quoting statistics stating that despite our lack of a “gay ghetto”, Oregon has the “third-highest proportion of same-sex couples in the nation” and “Portland has the 11th-highest number of same-sex couples among all U.S. cities”. The stats rest only on same-sex couples, but we all know that those are indicative of a whole lotta single ladies (and gents).
I could’ve told you PDX is getting gayer by the day without expensive surveys and statistical analysis…just look at the amount of queer dance parties, especially at Pride!
I’m pretty excited that the stats back up Alley’s and mine drunken musings about the amount of queer nights now vs. a few years ago.
More info and stats after the jump.
Reasons for this? A liberal political climate, (dispite statewide anti-gay marriage laws), good schools, quality of life. Doesn’t sound that gay to me, personally, but there you go. Kendall Clawson, director of th eQ Center, even touts Portland as “a great place to raise a family”. Oh, times have changed.
•Portland has an estimated 3,604 gay and lesbian couples living together; Oregon has 10,705.
• 1.5 percent of all Portland households are headed by a same-sex couple; in Eugene, it’s nearly 2 percent.
•Among same-sex households in Eugene, there are seven female couples for every male couple.
• There’s been a 20-percent increase in same-sex couples in Portland and Oregon since 2000.
• Portland has the seventh-highest proportion of same-sex couples among the nation’s cities, after San Francisco, Oakland, Seattle, Atlanta, Sacramento and Minneapolis.
•More than 2,100 same-sex couples registered domestic partnerships in Multnomah County since they were instituted in February 2008
Sources: 2008 American Community Survey, Multnomah County
