Same-sex parenting surged in last decade

The suburban home is nicely furnished with art, antiques and comfortable seating.

An Elmo doll sits in a tiny chair. A rocking horse is positioned next to the dining room cabinet.

The family includes two children and two dogs. One parent stays at home to look after the kids while the other holds down a job as chief operating officer of a company that operates senior living facilities. In almost every respect, the Hadleys are the postcard middle-class American family.

Except for one thing: Eric and Jeremy are gay.

Even that fact is not so strange, according to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. The number of reported same-sex parents increased sharply across the tri-county area and statewide, the figures show.

From 2000 to 2010, reported male couples in Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties jumped by nearly 40 percent, to 859. Female couples in those counties rose by 58 percent, to 1,010; and unmarried heterosexual couples living together increased by 64 percent.

Husband-wife households increased less than 17 percent, trailing the area's overall population increase.

Eric and Jeremy Hadley say their family values are about as mainstream as they can get. They both grew up on farms. Both were raised in Christian families. Today, Eric is senior warden at St. Stephens Episcopal Church.

"Neither of us are activist types; we don't have a point to prove," Jeremy Hadley said. "So ... we've insulated ourselves."

Raising two young daughters -- Edith Rose is 2, Martha Elizabeth is 3 months -- was a natural choice, they said.

"The most important thing children can have is a loving home environment," Eric Hadley said. "In this day and age, adoption is becoming more and more common, and so is same-sex marriage."

As the kids grow they will surely encounter other adopted children, and other gay couples, he said. "I think this generation and future generations are going to be more mature in thought."