Latinos' added burden

It's hard enough for same-sex couples who live in states with marriage bans that deny basic protections for them and their children. But when those couples are Hispanic (to use the U.S. Census classification) the lack of marriage creates an even heavier burden, says a first-of-its-kind study of U.S. Census data by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

That's because the same-sex Hispanic couples identified by the Census, on average, had more children, made less money, and were less likely to be U.S. citizens than white non-Hispanics.

"Being Latino, having that added label, makes the fight greater," said Claudia Glaser, 44, who is raising twins with her Latina partner of six years, Carolina Cordero Dyer, 47, in New York. "[Latino leaders] prefer not to acknowledge the large number of Latino same-sex couples, and they try to make [same-sex marriage] a white issue."

The study of data representing 105,000 households concluded that the many benefits of marriage, from tax advantages to the Family Medical Leave Act, would be especially helpful to Hispanic same-sex couples. "We need to provide information that state and local activists can use in their communities," said Jason Cianciotto, coauthor of the study.

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