Census Bureau Says 2020 Count could Include Gays
The Associated Press
By Lisa Leff
October 22, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO — The U.S. Census
Bureau is making an unprecedented effort to include
same-sex couples in next year's national population
count, but legally married gay couples won't show up
as such in the official once-a-decade tally, bureau
representatives said Thursday.
Statistical problems related to the development
of the 2010 census form and the evolving legal state
of same-sex relationships led Census officials to
conclude that trying to include married gay couples
in the overall snapshot of household marital status
could yield an inaccurate number, said Gary Gates, a
University of California, Los Angeles demographer
who has been advising the bureau on gay issues.
Instead, same-sex married couples will be added
into the category for unmarried partners, just as
they were for the 2000 census. But in a marked
policy departure, the agency plans to make the data
on same-sex couples who described themselves as
married available on a state-by-state basis.
"The Bureau has decided to give us the
information, but be a little cautious," Gates said.
The decision to develop separate sets of numbers
was a compromise position that was "less about
politics and more about accurate data," he said.
Gates stressed that it was important for gay
couples to participate in the census, noting that
information drawn from the last one had been used in
lawsuits dealing with same-sex marriage and to lobby
congressional representatives who may wrongly assume
they do not have many gay constituents.
Because same-sex marriages were not legal in any
U.S. state a decade ago, the 2010 census is the
first for which the bureau has wrestled with how to
count married same-sex couples. In June, census
officials announced that they would make the
attempt, reversing an earlier decision made under
the Bush administration.
Since then, however, it's become clearer that a
wildly inflated number could be produced if the
number of heads of household who said they lived
with another adult of the same sex, and described
that person as a husband or wife, were only counted.
Some couples in civil unions or domestic
partnerships, or who live as spouses in states where
gay couples have no spousal rights, have tended in
past surveys to identify themselves as husbands or
wives anyway, according to Gates.
The annual American Community Survey the bureau
produced for 2008, for example, had 150,000 married
same-sex couples spread across every U.S. state,
even though only two states — Massachusetts and for
a 5-month period, California — allowed same-sex
marriages. Gates estimates there are probably no
more than 35,000 legally married gay couples in the
country now.
Undercounting same-sex couples also remains a
significant concern, Gates said, since some couples
may not be living openly and fear discrimination.
Tim Olsen, assistant chief of the bureau's field
division, told gay community leaders at a census
outreach meeting in San Francisco Thursday that the
agency is continuing to refine the way it counts
same-sex couples and could have the ability to
separate married from unmarried couples in time for
future surveys.
"We have a big opportunity to create a picture of
America that includes us. We are not invisible
anymore," Olsen said.
This census marks the first time that gays and
lesbians have been targeted for minority outreach
efforts that also include reaching out to groups
deemed "hard to reach" because of their disaffection
with the government.
The gay community campaign will include a Web
site, scheduled to go up in about two weeks, called
Our Families Count, as well as advertising campaigns
in cities with large gay populations. Among the
video vignettes meant to demonstrate the nation's
diversity on the main census site is one featuring a
transgender person, Olsen said.
"You will see yourself in these videos, whether
you are Hispanic, black, white, mixed-race, gay or
straight," he said.
Although the census has not attempted to count
individuals who identify as gay, lesbian or
transgender, they could be included in the next
count or even future editions of the annual American
Community Survey, Olsen said. The survey, which is
much more detailed than the 10-question census form
that will be mailed to every household in March, is
designed to give state and local governments a
snapshot of how their populations are changing.
Olsen said gay leaders need to keep advocating if
they want to be recognized.
"In terms of 2010, we are set in stone. For 2020,
now is the time to start doing what you do best," he
said.
