He served as the Blachford-Cooper Distinguished Scholar at the UCLA School of Law's Williams Institute, of which he was also the research director.
He is an expert on the demography of LGBT populations in the United States.
[1] Prior to becoming a demographer, he worked as a software engineer and seminarian.
[3] Gates is the co-author of the 2004 book The Gay and Lesbian Atlas.
According to the Washington Post, one of these statistics was that "about one in five gay and lesbian couples are raising children under age 18".