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Where Do Chicago's Married Gay Couples Live? Where Diversity Meets Divide

By  Tanveer Ali and Linze Rice | June 22, 2016 5:47am 

 Hollywood Beach in Edgewater is known by locals as the
Hollywood Beach in Edgewater is known by locals as the "gay beach," and data analyzed by DNAinfo shows nearby ZIP codes boast the highest amount of gay couples who are married.
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DNAinfo/Linze Rice

CHICAGO — Since marriage equality became legal in Cook County in February 2014, at least 4,927 gay couples in Chicago have tied the knot.

The bulk of those marriage licenses (2,936) were distributed that same year. In 2015, about half as many couples got licenses, 1,490.

As of June 15 of this year, 501 gay couples have married in Chicago.

When broken down by ZIP codes, the data behind those licenses reveals some perhaps surprising insights about Chicago's married same-sex city-dwellers.

Male Couples Vs. Female Couples

About 62 percent of those couples are men, with 3,047 same-sex male licenses issued compared with 1,880 female ones.

Andersonville, Edgewater, Uptown (60640, 60660), Lakeview (60657) and Rogers Park (60626) are the most popular areas for same-sex married couples to live (both men and women).

In the 60640 ZIP code, 405 male couples outnumber the 173 female couples. In Lakeview, the number of female married couples (55) is far less than the number of marriages between men (291).

A DNAinfo analysis of 2014 census estimates found that there are more than 5,200 same-sex unmarried male couples living together, more than twice the number of female same-sex couples.

Data shows that in most neighborhoods the number of marriage licenses given to male couples exceeds those of women — with a few exceptions.

Check out our interactive map below to see how many gay couples have gotten married in your neighborhood.

There are 62 percent more married male same-sex couples in Chicago than female ones. There were 3,047 same-sex male licenses issued compared with 1,880 female ones.

South Side Couples

The ZIP codes with the most gay marriages were likely to have more male married couples than female ones on the North Side.

But on the South Side, where fewer marriage licenses were registered to same-sex couples overall, marriages between women were more common.

In Chatham, 40 marriage licenses were given to female couples, as compared with 12 male couples. In the South Shore neighborhood, there were 34 married lesbian couples, compared to 18 married male couples.

Married lesbians outnumber gay male couples in other communities across the South and West Sides, too, like Ashburn, Roseland, Pullman, Auburn Gresham, Englewood, South Side, Bronzeville and South Austin.

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