Census Bureau Now Categorizes Same-Sex Married Couples As ‘Families’
New census data released Thursday made a simple but substantial change in categorizing same-sex married couples: They now are considered families.
In prior years, the U.S. Census Bureau counted such couples as “unmarried partners,” even if they were legally married. But now, starting with the new annual American Community Survey, they are in among the family totals.
The change delighted Lynn Helms and Laura Murphey, a Stallings couple who got married in Washington, D.C., in 2011. They also have a 10-year-old son.
“We certainly talk about us as a family,” Helms said. “It’s nice for the census to come into this century and do the same.”
Murphey agreed and called the change an important step in acknowledging the diversity of American culture.
“It’s nice to be recognized,” Murphey said. “We see each other as a married couple on a day-to-day basis. (The census change) makes a difference in the bigger picture.”
That picture includes nearly 56 million married-couple households in the nation last year, according to the new estimates. Same-sex couples accounted for a sliver of that total, some 251,695 homes.
In North Carolina, there were an estimated 19,327 households with same-sex couples, including 6,469 homes, or nearly 34 percent, with married couples. In 2012, an estimated 27 percent of same-sex couples were married, the data showed.
South Carolina had 8,347 same-sex couple households, including 2,583 homes, or 31 percent, with married couples. The previous year, about 28 percent of same-sex couples were married.
Same-sex couples who live together but are not married are still counted as “unmarried partners,” the same designation for unmarried opposite-sex couples. The Census Bureau has counted same-sex couples since 1990.
The change in handling same-sex married couples followed the June 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down a key part of the Defense of Marriage Act, said Rose Kreider, chief of the Census Bureau’s Fertility and Family Statistics Branch. Gay married couples in states where that practice is legal must receive the same federal benefits that other married couples receive, the court ruled.
“The (census) change makes sense given the Supreme Court decision,” Kreider said.
Nineteen states and the District of Columbia allow same-sex marriages, a movement that began a decade ago in Massachusetts. Legal challenges continue to percolate, and the U.S. Supreme Court is ultimately expected to settle the issue.
North Carolina passed a same-sex marriage ban, known as Amendment One, in 2012. But in July, Attorney General Roy Cooper said the state will stop defending the ban after a federal appeals court ruled Virginia’s ban unconstitutional.
A McClatchy poll released last month found 54 percent of Americans support gay marriage, which is double the total for 1996.
Reflection of society
Gary Gates, a UCLA expert in demographics of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, called the census move a welcome one.
“It’s a very positive step that comports with the law and more closely (reflects) how society understands same-sex couples and their families,” he said.
The change, however, won’t have a big effect on overall family statistics given how small the same-sex totals are, Gates said. And there is a chance some opposite-sex couples checked the wrong box and were counted in the same-sex figures.
Unlike the decennial census that goes to every household in the country, the annual ACS makes an estimate based on a sample survey. Some 3.5 million households across the nation were surveyed throughout last year for the ACS, including about 161,000 in the Carolinas.
As it does with other questions, the Census Bureau is refining how it asks people to report their marital status and hopes to get more accurate same-sex responses when it counts couples in the 2020 decennial census.
‘Strengthen the family’
The Rev. Robin Tanner of Piedmont Unitarian Universalist Church in Charlotte has officiated at same-sex weddings out of state for her congregants. She praised the census move.
“It can only strengthen the family structure to have all families literally counted,” Tanner said.
Among the weddings she presided over was for Cornelius resident Elaine Deck and her partner in May in Washington, D.C.
Deck agreed with Murphey and Helms that the census move was an encouraging one. “It further legitimizes our status as families,” she said. –Charlotte Observer
Can Marijuana Cause Psychosis? - Scientific American
Many studies show that teens who use marijuana face a greater risk of later developing schizophrenia or symptoms of it, especially if they have a genetic predisposition. For instance, one 15-year study followed more than 45,000 Swedes who initially had no psychotic symptoms. The researchers determined that subjects who smoked marijuana by age 18 were 2.4 times more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia than their nonsmoking peers, and this risk increased with the frequency of cannabis use. The connection still held when researchers accounted for participants' use of other drugs.
Yet despite these results and an uptick in marijuana use in the 1970s and 1980s, other researchers have not uncovered an increase in the incidence of schizophrenia in the general Swedish population—suggesting that perhaps people who were going to develop schizophrenia anyway were more likely to use marijuana. Another study, conducted in Australia over a 30-year period, also found no increase in schizophrenia diagnoses among the general population, despite rising rates of teen marijuana use. These authors concluded that although cannabis most likely does not cause schizophrenia, its use might trigger psychosis in vulnerable people or exacerbate an existing condition. –Scientific America
What’s Lurking In Your Toothpaste?
Triclosan Disrupts Development
Another culprit found in popular toothpaste is triclosan. This anti-bacterial ingredient — designed to prevent gum disease — has some pretty alarming side effects. Not the least of which are hormonal disruptors that caused fetal bone malformations in mice and rats. According to Caren Helbing, a professor at the University of Victoria in Canada, triclosan’s chemical structure is similar to both thyroid hormones and PCBs, which allow these chemicals to become active on hormone receptors. She found that tadpoles exposed to triclosan developed into smaller froglets and had malformed legs. The effects were tied to doses equal to just 1/10 of a pea-sized bit of toothpaste the average person uses on a daily basis. Thomas Zoeller, an endocrine specialist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst noted that nearly 1,000 chemicals are believed to disrupt the endocrine system, but triclosan is among the top 10 that people are exposed to on a regular basis.
Propylene Glycol Linked to Liver, Kidney Abnormalities
Used in antifreeze, propylene glycol is quickly absorbed through the skin. Too much of this chemical may lead to brain, liver and kidney abnormalities. The EPA insists workers use gloves when handling propylene glycol. And you’re putting it in your mouth?
Sodium Lauryl Sulfate & DEA form Cancer-Causing Nitrates
According to the American College of Toxicology, sodium laurel sulfate may remain in your body for up to five days — lurking in your heart, liver, lungs and brain. Combined with other chemicals, this compound transforms into nitrosamines, powerful carcinogens that cause your body to absorb harmful nitrates. Too much sodium laurel sulfate can damage your eyes, irritate your skin and result in labored breathing. Then there’s DEA, a chemical that disrupts hormones and forms cancer-causing nitrates. –Care2
New census data released Thursday made a simple but substantial change in categorizing same-sex married couples: They now are considered families.
In prior years, the U.S. Census Bureau counted such couples as “unmarried partners,” even if they were legally married. But now, starting with the new annual American Community Survey, they are in among the family totals.
The change delighted Lynn Helms and Laura Murphey, a Stallings couple who got married in Washington, D.C., in 2011. They also have a 10-year-old son.
“We certainly talk about us as a family,” Helms said. “It’s nice for the census to come into this century and do the same.”
Murphey agreed and called the change an important step in acknowledging the diversity of American culture.
“It’s nice to be recognized,” Murphey said. “We see each other as a married couple on a day-to-day basis. (The census change) makes a difference in the bigger picture.”
That picture includes nearly 56 million married-couple households in the nation last year, according to the new estimates. Same-sex couples accounted for a sliver of that total, some 251,695 homes.
In North Carolina, there were an estimated 19,327 households with same-sex couples, including 6,469 homes, or nearly 34 percent, with married couples. In 2012, an estimated 27 percent of same-sex couples were married, the data showed.
South Carolina had 8,347 same-sex couple households, including 2,583 homes, or 31 percent, with married couples. The previous year, about 28 percent of same-sex couples were married.
Same-sex couples who live together but are not married are still counted as “unmarried partners,” the same designation for unmarried opposite-sex couples. The Census Bureau has counted same-sex couples since 1990.
The change in handling same-sex married couples followed the June 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down a key part of the Defense of Marriage Act, said Rose Kreider, chief of the Census Bureau’s Fertility and Family Statistics Branch. Gay married couples in states where that practice is legal must receive the same federal benefits that other married couples receive, the court ruled.
“The (census) change makes sense given the Supreme Court decision,” Kreider said.
Nineteen states and the District of Columbia allow same-sex marriages, a movement that began a decade ago in Massachusetts. Legal challenges continue to percolate, and the U.S. Supreme Court is ultimately expected to settle the issue.
North Carolina passed a same-sex marriage ban, known as Amendment One, in 2012. But in July, Attorney General Roy Cooper said the state will stop defending the ban after a federal appeals court ruled Virginia’s ban unconstitutional.
A McClatchy poll released last month found 54 percent of Americans support gay marriage, which is double the total for 1996.
Reflection of society
Gary Gates, a UCLA expert in demographics of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, called the census move a welcome one.
“It’s a very positive step that comports with the law and more closely (reflects) how society understands same-sex couples and their families,” he said.
The change, however, won’t have a big effect on overall family statistics given how small the same-sex totals are, Gates said. And there is a chance some opposite-sex couples checked the wrong box and were counted in the same-sex figures.
Unlike the decennial census that goes to every household in the country, the annual ACS makes an estimate based on a sample survey. Some 3.5 million households across the nation were surveyed throughout last year for the ACS, including about 161,000 in the Carolinas.
As it does with other questions, the Census Bureau is refining how it asks people to report their marital status and hopes to get more accurate same-sex responses when it counts couples in the 2020 decennial census.
‘Strengthen the family’
The Rev. Robin Tanner of Piedmont Unitarian Universalist Church in Charlotte has officiated at same-sex weddings out of state for her congregants. She praised the census move.
“It can only strengthen the family structure to have all families literally counted,” Tanner said.
Among the weddings she presided over was for Cornelius resident Elaine Deck and her partner in May in Washington, D.C.
Deck agreed with Murphey and Helms that the census move was an encouraging one. “It further legitimizes our status as families,” she said. –Charlotte Observer
Can Marijuana Cause Psychosis? - Scientific American
Many studies show that teens who use marijuana face a greater risk of later developing schizophrenia or symptoms of it, especially if they have a genetic predisposition. For instance, one 15-year study followed more than 45,000 Swedes who initially had no psychotic symptoms. The researchers determined that subjects who smoked marijuana by age 18 were 2.4 times more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia than their nonsmoking peers, and this risk increased with the frequency of cannabis use. The connection still held when researchers accounted for participants' use of other drugs.
Yet despite these results and an uptick in marijuana use in the 1970s and 1980s, other researchers have not uncovered an increase in the incidence of schizophrenia in the general Swedish population—suggesting that perhaps people who were going to develop schizophrenia anyway were more likely to use marijuana. Another study, conducted in Australia over a 30-year period, also found no increase in schizophrenia diagnoses among the general population, despite rising rates of teen marijuana use. These authors concluded that although cannabis most likely does not cause schizophrenia, its use might trigger psychosis in vulnerable people or exacerbate an existing condition. –Scientific America
What’s Lurking In Your Toothpaste?
Triclosan Disrupts Development
Another culprit found in popular toothpaste is triclosan. This anti-bacterial ingredient — designed to prevent gum disease — has some pretty alarming side effects. Not the least of which are hormonal disruptors that caused fetal bone malformations in mice and rats. According to Caren Helbing, a professor at the University of Victoria in Canada, triclosan’s chemical structure is similar to both thyroid hormones and PCBs, which allow these chemicals to become active on hormone receptors. She found that tadpoles exposed to triclosan developed into smaller froglets and had malformed legs. The effects were tied to doses equal to just 1/10 of a pea-sized bit of toothpaste the average person uses on a daily basis. Thomas Zoeller, an endocrine specialist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst noted that nearly 1,000 chemicals are believed to disrupt the endocrine system, but triclosan is among the top 10 that people are exposed to on a regular basis.
Propylene Glycol Linked to Liver, Kidney Abnormalities
Used in antifreeze, propylene glycol is quickly absorbed through the skin. Too much of this chemical may lead to brain, liver and kidney abnormalities. The EPA insists workers use gloves when handling propylene glycol. And you’re putting it in your mouth?
Sodium Lauryl Sulfate & DEA form Cancer-Causing Nitrates
According to the American College of Toxicology, sodium laurel sulfate may remain in your body for up to five days — lurking in your heart, liver, lungs and brain. Combined with other chemicals, this compound transforms into nitrosamines, powerful carcinogens that cause your body to absorb harmful nitrates. Too much sodium laurel sulfate can damage your eyes, irritate your skin and result in labored breathing. Then there’s DEA, a chemical that disrupts hormones and forms cancer-causing nitrates. –Care2
Do Americans Remember 9/11?
On the 13th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, most Americans continue to believe the country has changed for the worse and are evenly divided as to whether Americans have forgotten the impact of that horrific day.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 14% of U.S. Adults believe the United States has changed for the better since 9/11. Sixty-one percent (61%) believe America has changed for the worse, though that’s down from 67% a year ago. Eleven percent (11%) say the country hasn’t changed, but 14% are undecided. –Rasmussen Report
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