In Wyoming's Laramie County, 43% of same-sex couples are raising children
. Gay and lesbian television characters were once such a rare sight that, an advocacy group, began an annual count, as if it were tracking an endangered species. Now millions tune in to “Modern Family” to see how Cam and Mitch are getting on raising their adopted daughter. Their portrayal of gay domesticity has been credited with helping to change attitudes and with boosting support for same-sex marriage. One poll found it was the third most popular show among Republican voters.
Take Wyoming. It has the fourth-lowest share of homosexual couples of all American states. Yet a quarter of them are raising children, compared with 9% in Washington,and 16% in California, according to an analysis of Census Bureau and polling data by the Williams Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles. In Laramie County, the most populous corner of the state, that rate rises to 43%.
Mr Zwonitzer, whose family has lived in Cheyenne for five generations, did not come out of the closet until his mid-20s. When he did so, he gave up on his long-cherished ambition to raise a family. “I didn’t think it was going to happen in Wyoming,” he says. Yet, in common with other local couples, he claims to have encountered no hostility when he became a parent.
Brian Hardy is a good example. The doctor, who was raised in Cheyenne, had four children during his 14-year marriage to a woman. “I grew up in a very religious home,” he says. “I was definitely trying to fit into a mould of what I’d always been taught was the right thing to do.” His children now spend every other week with him and his fiancé, Jason Caswell, whom he met at work two years ago.
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