30% of US citizens now live in a place where gay marriage is legal, compared to 23% of Europeans
The average gay or lesbian American is now more likely to live in a place where they can marry than a European.
The death of Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California and was struck down by the US Supreme Court yesterday (26 June), means a larger percentage of the gay US population is able to marry than in Europe.
Almost a third – 30% – of US residents now live in places where same-sex marriage is legal, compared to 23.1% of Europeans.
More people in Europe, where same-sex marriage is currently legal in nine countries, live in places where LGBT people can marry than in the US (170.8million Europeans and 94.9million Americans). But as a percentage of the total population, the figure in the US is greater.
When LGBT people can marry in the UK, which is likely to be next year, 31.5% of Europeans will live in a country with marriage equality, but several more US states may also have legalized same-sex marriage by then.
LGBT Americans can now marry in 13 states – California, New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington and the District of Columbia, that have a total population of 94,958,710, according to the 2012 US census.
LGBT Europeans can marry in nine countries – France, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Portugal, Sweden, Norway and Iceland – with a total population of 170,838,933.
Earlier this week Facebook reported that 70% of US users have at least one friend who describes themselves as gay, bisexual or transgender.
by Anna Leach
Source – Gay Star News
