While these data sources all measure different degrees of openness, one result is strikingly similar: All three suggest that the openly gay population is dramatically higher in more tolerant states, defined using an estimate by Nate Silver of support for same-sex marriage. There are three sources that can give us estimates of the openly gay population broken down by state: the census, which asks about same-sex households Gallup, which has fairly large-sample surveys for every state and Facebook, which asks members what gender they are interested in.