New York City's
same-sex couples who live in the Bronx are more likely to
be raising children than those who live in any other borough
of the city, according to a study released by the
University of California, Los Angeles, Williams
Institute and reported in The New York Times
Tuesday.
While the city's
northernmost borough is often thought of as more of the
rough-and-tumble streetscape depicted in crime dramas such
as Paul Newman's Fort Apache the Bronx, it has
become home to 3,000 gay couples (a fraction of the
borough's 1.3 million people), 49% of whom have
children. The study estimates that about 26,000
same-sex couples in total live in the city, with most of
them residing in more traditionally gay-friendly
neighborhoods such as Manhattan's Chelsea and
Brooklyn's Park Slope. Manhattan, for instance, houses
10,000 gay couples, but only about 4% of them have
children according to the report.
Many gay parents
say they have chosen to settle in the Bronx due to
cheaper rent, more spacious apartments, racial affinity, and
familiarity with the area. But Lisa Winters, executive
director of the Bronx Community Pride Center, told the
Times that problems still exist.
"The Bronx
lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community has
largely been a hidden community for a very long time
because of very real homophobia," Winters said.
"The Bronx is a very machismo borough, and
it's a very religious borough. The religious
institutions have a very strong foothold here, and
they preach from the pulpit that homosexuality is a
sin." (The Advocate)
