Many would be surprised to discover that of the nation’s many gay communities, the highest percentage of gay parents can be found in San Antonio, Texas.
According to the Williams Institute at the University of California, which analyzed the 2010 census data, 34% of same-sex couples in San Antonio are raising children under 18.
The statistic may be surprising because San Antonio is often portrayed as the heart of conservative South Texas while its neighbor Austin, the liberal state capital, earns the reputation as Texas’ gay safe-haven.
The fact is that the gay community is more diverse and exists across more social and cultural categories than many in the general population realize.
Media has popularized the stereotype of the sophisticated, urban, white gay man that rarely applies, in whole, to the gay male community and ignores the rest of the LGBTQ community en masse.
Within the top 15 cities with the nation’s highest percentages of same-sex parents, many are as stereotypically conservative as San Antonio. Some of the country’s largest and most diverse cities, such as New York and Los Angeles, aren’t included in the top 15.
Gary Gates, the Williams Institute’s chief researcher, told reporters he believes this is because of the LGBTQ community’s diversity. Members exist across many cultural and religious value systems, as well as across many different socio-economic levels.
Some might choose to live in more conservative locales.
Some might not be able to afford to leave.
Regardless of what brought them or what keeps them here, the number of same-sex families is growing exponentially in San Antonio.
A 24.5 percent increase in total households in Bexar County was met with a 69.2 percent increase in gay households and a near doubling in the number of lesbian households, the San Antonio Express-News reported in 2011.
While the numbers keep growing and the feeling of hope persists, many in San Antonio’s LGBTQ community who are native to Texas find their feelings are torn. There is a great love and nostalgia for their home state but a simultaneous frustration at the persistent conservative attitude.
Anel Flores, interviewed with her partner and soon-to-be wife, Erica Casasola, both long-time San Antonio residents, spoke of her contradictory feelings for the city.
“I think that we’re a wonderful city in that we have very sweet, traditional values and I think [the] love in San Antonio helps us all get along. But there’s still a lot of conservative hatred breeding. I think we’ve changed a little, but I think we still have a long way to go.”
Another long-time resident, Priscilla Robledo spoke enthusiastically about Texas’ future, saying, “I’m really excited…that we’re actually on our way and that it’s possibly a close reality.”
Still, she said, she’s torn, much like Flores.
“Texas is hard though,” she said. “Even if things are passed at a federal level you know Texas is going to be right there, first in line, challenging it.”
Members of the LGBTQ community often find themselves relying on straight supporters to cover and publish their stories; to relay their hopes and fears to the general public. 2014 has brought a multitude of opportunities for the community to speak for themselves as judge after judge, state after state, grapples with the question of same-sex marriage bans and their constitutionality. Here is a small sample of what San Antonio’s LGBTQ has to say.
