Chicago is the home of the first longitudinal study on lesbian health (a longitudinal study follows the same group of people over time). The Chicago Health and Life Experiences of Women (CHLEW)study is ground-breaking not only because it will follow up a large sample of lesbians over time, but also because it has one of the most diverse samples of lesbians in a health study, including a large number of women of color and women from all ages and economic backgrounds.
Although lesbians and gay men are now allowed to legally marry in Massachusetts, the issue of equal access to legal marriage is being hotly debated. These debates over same-sex marriage rarely acknowledge the many similarities between lesbian and gay families and their heterosexual counterparts.
To examine this question, we took a look at responses to some of the questions about family and relationships that were asked of women in our 2000-2001 interviews. We found that the majority—60%—of lesbians in the CHLEW are in a committed relationship and almost one-third have one or more children. These findings are similar to data from the 2000 U.S. Census, which now attempts to count same-sex couples. According to data from the Census about 1% (or 601,209)of all U.S. coupled households are same-sex and about one-half of these couples are women. An estimated one in four same-sex households (27.5%)report raising children under age 18. This compares to 40% of heterosexual couples who reported raising children. More lesbian couples are raising children than gay-male couples; one in three female couples, compared with one in five male couples, report having children under 18 at home. The census counted only couples who lived in the same household and not those who were in committed relationships but did not live together. Based on the 20% of lesbians in the CHLEW study who reported that they were in committed relationships but not living with their partners, this may represent a substantial undercount of same-sex relationships. In addition, it is very likely that a substantial number of same–sex couples did not accurately report their status to the census bureau.
We are now conducting the second round of interviews with the 448 women who participated in the study in 2000-2001. This round of interviews will give us an idea about how changes in marriage and adoption laws influence the configurations of lesbian families. Such information is important to provide policymakers the evidence necessary to consider better protections, and equal rights, for same-sex families. The success of our study depends on finding and interviewing as many women from the first phase of the study as possible. We have lost contact with about 35 of the 450 women who were interviewed three years ago. If you or anyone you know participated in the first phase of the study please call our toll-free number 1-866-933-3459 or contact us via e-mail (chlewstudy@yahoo.com). No one can replace the original participants.
We very much appreciate your help and look forward to bringing you interesting and useful information about health issues of importance to our community.