Report: 1 million African-American people in U.S. identify as LGBT

An estimated 73,800 LGBT African-American adults live in Georgia, accounting for 3.6 percent of LGBT African-American adults, states the report.

The report gets more detailed and shows of the top 10 counties in the country with the most same-sex couples with an African-American householder:

•  Clayton County with 317, coming in at No. 3.

• DeKalb County with 829, coming in at No. 7.

* Fulton County with 9,672, and coming in at No. 10.

African-Americans in same-sex couples tend to live in states with higher concentrations of black people, not LGBT people, according to the report, and is why many black gay couples live in the South where there is a higher concentration of African Americans but not necessarily LGBT people.

In Atlanta, black gay couples are even making the list for one of the top couples for “coolest black families” by Ebony magazine.

Politically, the Atlanta Black LGBT Coalition is also somewhat active and recently submitted a column to the GA Voice about the recent Supreme Court rulings on the Defense of Marriage Act and the Voting Rights Act.

Other findings include:

There are overall higher unemployment rates (15 percent versus 12 percent) and lower proportions with a college degree (23 percent versus 26 percent) among LGBT African-Americans, when compared to their non-LGBT counterparts.

“However, these disadvantages are not present among African-Americans in same-sex couples. Twenty-five percent of African-Americans in same-sex couples have completed a college degree, compared to 22 percent of African-Americans in different-sex couples. In addition, 71 percent of African-Americans in same-sex couples are employed compared to 68 percent of their counterparts in different-sex couples,” according to the report.

Black LGBT people are less likely to have health insurance.

“Given their lower levels of health insurance coverage and the evidence of broader economic disadvantage, the opportunity for less expensive health care resulting from the Affordable Care Act may be particularly attractive for LGBT African-Americans,” said Gary J. Gates, one of the authors of the report, in a statement.

The report also states that LGBT African-American women, making up 58 percent of all African-American gay couples, earn $20,000 less than male gay couples.

“LGBT African-American parents and their children evidence significant economic disadvantage and many live in states without LGBT anti-discrimination laws or marriage equality. Establishing these important legal protections could really help these families,” said study co-author Angeliki Kastanis in a prepared statement.

Read the full report by clicking here.

Photo: Participants in this year’s Atlanta Black Gay Pride weekend, one of the largest in the nation. (by Dyana Bagby)