‘Queer the Census’
campaign launched
By Lisa Neff, columnist, 365gay.com
10.20.2009 8:55am EDT
The U.S. Census Bureau will make
an official count of same-sex couples next spring while LGBT activists will
attempt to “queer the census” with a grassroots write-in campaign.
“This is a real change from the
way we’ve been treated in the past,” said Molly McKay of Marriage Equality USA. Couples could do the same in 2000. And, with the legalization of
same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, a new opportunity opened for the head of a
household, when listing others in the residence, to check “husband or wife” and
be counted as same-sex married household. But the Bush administration
determined that the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act prohibited federal agencies from
tabulating and reporting data on same-sex marriages. Thus, the administration
directed the bureau to recategorize same-sex couples who identified as
“married” in the Census to “unmarried.” For the past two years, activists,
lawmakers and government employees have advocated changing that policy before
Census forms go out in March 2010. “We have followed with great
concern news reports that the U.S. Census Bureau intends to continue
‘scrubbing’ data on same-sex married couples in its 2010 Census public reports,”
a coalition of lawmakers wrote Peter Orszag, director of the Office of
Management and Budget, in May 2009. “We are very concerned with this
planned data modification and request your leadership in ensuring the Census
Bureau adopt acceptable methods for identifying same-sex married couples in its
publicly released data.” Additionally, activists
representing about 25 organizations met with administration and Census
officials. “We drew a line in the sand,” said
Jaime Grant, director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy
Institute in Washington, D.C. And they won, securing more than a
reversal of policy. The bureau committed to counting same-sex couples — married
and unmarried — next year, as well as officially releasing the statistics. “The data set is going to be
rich,” said Timothy Olson, an assistant division chief with the U.S. Census
Bureau. “This will be a powerful data set and it will play a significant role
in all of the issues on the political side, the social side, healthcare, housing,
public transportation.” “We really see it as the door
opener on changing the way the feds think about LGBT questions,” “The Census is
our Trojan horse.” Earlier this month, the bureau
announced the launch of its first-ever Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender
Complete Count Committees in California in preparation for the 2010 Census. The committees are locally driven
efforts to educate and engage people to complete the Census, and they exist to
reach into a variety of communities, especially traditionally under-counted
communities. “Our goal is to sign up and engage
120,000 [community representatives] to spread the word about the Census — that
it is safe, easy and simple,” Olson said. “We are really focused on the
partnership program.” The outreach dates back to 1990,
when the bureau sought to reverse a decline in mail-in responses to the Census. The outreach is important because
the bureau’s task is to make an accurate assessment of the U.S. population. The
U.S. Constitution mandates the count: “Representatives and direct Taxes shall
be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this
Union, according to their respective Numbers.… The actual Enumeration shall be
made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United
States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they
shall by Law direct.” “People don’t understand the real
impact of the Census in our society,” Olson said. “Redistricting.
Reapportionment. Legislation. Funding. It really has a huge impact as to how we
are represented in our democracy and on the level of funding. $300 billion a
year is based on Census data.” Researchers — most prominently
those associated with the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law — have
analyzed Census data and surveys in the past to document discrimination based
on sexual orientation, to estimate the number of same-sex couples and to learn
about the make-up of their families, their incomes and their healthcare
situations. “In 1990, we said, ‘Check the
box,’” Grant said. “And in 2000, we said, ‘Check the box.’ Couples did. And
we’ve been able to use that data to tell the story of our community.” But there is more to the story,
she said. In addition to releasing official
data about same-sex couples in the 2010 Census, the bureau plans to incorporate
questions about same-sex couples in the American Community Survey, a bureau
project that replaced the long-form questionnaire in the decennial Census. The bureau has no plans to ask
about sexual orientation or gender identity in 2010, but a nationwide “Queer
the Census” campaign may provide the bureau with some numbers anyhow. “We’re thrilled we’re going to see
LGBT marriage in the Census,” Grant said. “But many of us are unpartnered and
we should be just as visible. So we are very excited about this campaign.” Through the campaign at www.queerthecensus.org,
people can get a pink and purple “Queer the Census” sticker to affix to the
back of their Census mailer. On the sticker, people can check a
box for all that apply — lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and straight ally.
The sticker proclaims, “Everyone deserves to be counted. It’s time to
queerthecensus.org.” “But they are going to see a
million pink and purple stickers,” Grant said. “We’re really hoping ‘Queer the
Census’ is going to catch fire.”
In 1990, the Census Bureau added “unmarried partner” to its Census
questionnaire, and thus independent researchers, by looking at gender, could
count same-sex unmarried couples.
“We are really fortunate in 2010 to have a community outreach program that is
about five times larger than 2000,” Olson said. And, he said, 2000 was
substantially larger than 1990.