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Lesbian and gay individuals could be among the potential foster parents or adoptive parents for whom placements would be refused under the proposed legislation of Virginia HB 189/SB 349. We estimate that 1,700 adopted children and 300 foster children are being raised by single lesbians and gay men in Virginia. According to our estimates, 40,000 lesbians and gay men may be prospective adoptive parents in Virginia. These individuals play an important role in providing adoptive homes and foster care for children in the state. If this legislation were to pass, families such as these may find it more difficult to serve as adoptive or foster parents, resulting in more children in congregate care or more children remaining in foster care for longer periods of time.

This research brief uses new data from the American Community Survey and the General Social Survey to provide updated estimates of how many lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals (LGB) are serving in the US military. It also updates estimates of the cost of the US military's "Don't Ask/Don't Tell" (DADT) policy.

This research brief considers the historic impact of the US military's "Don't Ask/Don't Tell" (DADT) policy on women and racial/ethnic minorities. Enacted by the US Congress in 1993, Don't Ask/Don't Tell prohibits lesbian, gay, or bisexual men and women from disclosing their sexual orientation while they serve in the US military. Since 1993, more than 13,000 individuals have been discharged for violating the DADT policy. Data presented in this brief show that the proportion of women and racial/ethnic minorities among those discharges has increased over time. In the late 1990s approximately a quarter of discharges were women and similar proportions were racial/ethnic minorities. In recent years, those proportions have increased to more than a third of the DADT discharges.

The Irish government has announced its intention to enact a civil partnership law that would for the first time offer formal legal recognition to same-sex couples in the Republic of Ireland. The 2006 Irish Census revealed that there were 2,090 same-sex cohabiting couples in the country. Analyses of data from the United States Census Bureau suggest these are not the only couples who might avail themselves of civil partnership: • More than 1,200 Irish-born men and women are living with a same-sex partner in the United States. • They are predominantly female and highly educated. One in seven reports raising children. • Civil partnership legislation could provide economic benefits to Ireland, enticing some of these talented same-sex couples to relocate back to Ireland and making the country more competitive in the global creative economy.

This research brief quantifies how the United States military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) policy affects retention rates among lesbian, gay, and bisexual military personnel. If the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy had not been instituted, an estimated 4,000 lesbian, gay, and bisexual military personnel would have been retained each year since 1994. The military intends to add more than 18,000 new troops each year for the next five years. If patterns observed in 2004 were to continue for the next five years, the estimated retained LGB personnel would account for nearly one in six of the additional troops required.

Gay, lesbian, and bisexual (GLB) voters may have a disproportionate impact in some key races in the upcoming election. An analysis of the GLB population in districts and states with competitive races shows the following: • In competitive House races with a Republican incumbent, an estimated 4.2 to 4.3 percent of adults are GLB, a figure above the national estimate of 4.1 percent and higher than proportions in tight races with an open seat or Democrat incumbent. • In Senate races with a Democrat incumbent, an estimated 4.5 percent of adults are GLB. • Among states with voter referenda that would ban marriage for same-sex couples, Arizona and Colorado have the highest proportions of GLB residents, 4.5 and 5.1 percent, respectively, and are the only two states with GLB population proportions above the national average.

While current United States immigration policy is based primarily on family reunification, it does not provide any rights for unmarried partners of citizens. In order to inform current legislative debates about expanding the policy of family reunification to include same-sex couples, this report provides a demographic and geographic portrait of bi-national same-sex "unmarried partners" from Census 2000.

Very little is known about the extent to which gay men and lesbians choose to serve their country through military service. This lack of knowledge contrasts with intense policy debates about the compatibility between homosexuality and service in the United States armed forces. Bayesian inference techniques applied to data from Census 2000 that enumerates characteristics of same-sex "unmarried partners" provide a mechanism for estimating the size of the gay and lesbian population currently serving in the military and exploring historical gay and lesbian military service patterns. Analyses suggest that rates of gay men and lesbians in current military service range from 1.32 to 3.78 percent, implying that at least 30,446 gay men and lesbians and as many as 87,202 are currently in uniform. The findings also show that gay men and, to an ever greater degree, lesbians have served in relatively large portions in all of the major military conflicts of the later 20th century.

Exit polls from the 2014 midterm election suggest that 4% of the electorate identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual, representing the highest recorded LGB turnout in a midterm election since 1998. These LGB voters, 75% in fact, overwhelmingly supported Democratic candidates in key congressional races. If LGB people had not voted in the 2014 election, Virginia Senator Mark Warner and Vermont Governor Peter Chumlin would have both been defeated by their Republican challengers. The strong LGBT support for Democratic candidates becomes even more decisive during close races. This research brief considers the impact of the LGBT vote in the 2014 midterm election.

An estimated 150,000 transgender individuals have served in the U.S. armed forces, or are currently on active duty. In addition, an estimated 134,000 transgender individuals are veterans or are retired from Guard or Reserve service, 8,800 transgender adults are currently on active duty in the U.S. armed forces, and an estimated 6,700 transgender individuals are serving in the Guard or Reserve forces. Transgender individuals assigned female at birth are nearly three times more likely than all adult women, and those assigned male at birth are 1.6 times more likely than all adult men, to serve. The estimates are derived using data from the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey and the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, which was conducted by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality.