PORTLAND – Eliott Cherry remembers being surprised and pleased to find he could check off a category on his census form that recognized his relationship with his significant other.

“We wanted to make sure we were counted – not as roommates, but partners,” Cherry, a Portland musician, said. “We were glad to have that option.”

Cherry and Chris Chenard, who have been together 10 years, are among the 3,394 same-sex partnerships that the U.S. Census Bureau counted in Maine in 2000. According to data released by the bureau Wednesday, 1,493 of Maine’s 518,200 households identified themselves as headed by a man with a male partner and 1,901 said they were headed by a woman with a female partner.

Unmarried opposite-sex partnerships accounted for 37,881 of the state’s households.

The percentage of same-sex partner homes in Maine is small – male-partner households make up 0.29 percent of the total and female-partner households comprise 0.37 percent.

Direct comparison with 1990 census data is not possible.

But increased political awareness about such issues as same-sex marriage, adoption and domestic partnerships in the last decade has helped gays and lesbians feel their relationships are “worthy of being documented by the census,” according to Paula Ettelbrick, family policy director for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

“I have no doubt that there were at least this many same-sex couples in 1990, but they just didn’t identify (themselves to the census),” she said. “I think this is just part of the coming-out process – identifying themselves on the census form.”

Nonetheless, Ettelbrick and others believe same-sex couples are underreported.

Some same-sex couples may not identify with the term “unmarried partner” or may be wary of identifying themselves on a form, Ettelbrick said.

Jonathan Lee, executive director of the Maine Speakout Project, predicted a more accurate count would be possible if gays and lesbians were allowed to marry.

“I think that when people have that option, more people will avail themselves of it and feel safer to talk about it,” said Lee.

Although Cherry knew he wanted his relationship counted, he said he could understand why gays and lesbians would be reluctant to identify themselves in the census.

“When you have an official count, people know where you live, all that stuff. It just becomes a little scary when you’re going on record,” he said. “It’s been ingrained in us since we were born, because the entire culture tries to tell you that it’s bad to be gay.”

Still, Cherry believes that homosexual couples are feeling more comfortable these days. When Cherry and Chenard decided they should develop the courage to hold hands in public, they met with instances of hostility. But increasingly, Cherry has noticed positive reactions – a smile or a thumbs-up sign.

The statistics come from answers to questions posed on the census forms including gender and, if two or more people lived in a home, “What is your relationship?”

The census did not ask about sexual orientation, but offered “unmarried partner” as one way to describe a relationship between two unrelated people living together. Other options included “housemate,” “boarder” and “other nonrelative.”

The census showed that all 16 Maine counties had some same-sex partner households. Cumberland County had the largest proportion, 0.87 percent of all households, with 944. Aroostook and Somerset counties had the lowest, 0.45 percent, with 138 and 92 households, respectively.

Portland was the city with the most same-sex partnership households. Of the city’s 29,714 households, 376, or 1.27 percent, reported being occupied by unmarried partners of the same sex. Last month, Portland started Maine’s first domestic partner registry that recognizes same-sex and unmarried heterosexual partnerships in the city.