Where can you be gay in the USA?

The map above was drawn from statistics published by the US Census Bureau regarding the 2013 annual American Community Survey (sourced from www.businessinsider.com). It clarifies the spread of households headed by a same sex relationship across the fifty states of America.

At first glance, the colour coding indicates that the East and West coasts have the highest percentage of same sex households whilst the North Westerly states and a column through the West North Central states culminating in the Bible Belt have the lowest numbers across the continent. The two paradigms can be compared to learn the ideologies and values by which the inhabitants live.

The East and West coasts, specifically the Northern East coast, states have high numbers of same sex households relative to the other regions. This would suggest that these states hold a majority liberal philosophical identity, welcoming the progressive nature of social change towards sexual equality. In comparison, this demographic representation also shows that the low ranking states hold more conservative values to heart, morally opposing the change that the acceptance of same sex relationships brings to their social structure - viewing it as a break down in a system they are used to, a common view among Christian believers, numerous across the Bible Belt.

Furthermore, many of the states with high numbers of same sex households are home to more cosmopolitan cities which command large tourist markets and scrupulous media attention. With this being the case, it would be damaging to their revenue and reputation to reject sexual equality. Whereas, many of the pale states have smaller population densities with higher proportions of agricultural and small town locations. Such locations provide a healthy breeding ground for conservative views and ideologies regarding national conversations, which directly affects the physical manifestation of, for example, same sex households in a given region.

Having talked about how the map above explains some aspects of social variety in America, i would like to allude to the political consequences it has too. The philosophical identities of each state, whether they are liberal or conservative, have the ability to slant the political landscape. 

Comparing the map above to one from the 2012 political campaign of Obama/Biden and Romney/Ryan (left) shows how the liberalism or conservatism of a state concerning same sex households translates in an largely similar way to their political denomination. In the main Americans that align with Democratic politics seem to be more accepting of same sex households in their society, whilst the Republican states appear to oppose same sex households.