Census Won’t Count Gay Families as Married--Even if They Are
EDGE Boston
by Kilian Melloy
July 14, 2008
In the year 2000, the U.S. Census Bureau didn’t have to think about whether
or not to reflect the number of same-sex couples in the country who have gotten
married. But since the advent of marriage equality in Massachusetts in 2004, and
now in California, the question has taken on some significance.
The official position of the Census Bureau is that married couples of the
same gender will not be counted as married couples at all in the 2010 census,
even though an official from the bureau has stated that "virtually every federal
agency" makes use of the tabulations prepared by the Census Bureau.
This being true, American families headed by two men or two women will
essentially have been censored from official tabulations, say equality
advocates.
Currently, the plan is to include the number of same-sex marrieds in the
total number of "unmarried partners" on the 2010 report, reported the California
newspaper the This text will be the link in a Jul 12 article.
The Mercury News reported that it is estimated that the number of same-sex
couples who will have married in California alone will have reached the tens of
thousands by the time of the new census. That would seem to be a significant
nukber of families to delete from official reports.
But the Census Bureau says the decision was not made lightly.
The Mercury News quoted the chief of the Fertility and Family Statistics
section of the Census Bureau, Martin O’Connell, who said, "This has been a
question we’ve been looking at for quite a long time."
Said O’Connell, "It’s not something the bureau could arbitrarily or casually
decide to change on a whim, because our data is used by virtually every federal
agency."
The bureau doesn’t see reporting same-sex families as "unmarried partners,"
despite their legally married status within their home states, as legally
redefining their relationships by fiat.
Said O’Connell, "We’re not destroying data; we are keeping that data."
But the numbers being folded into another category will make it much harder
for anyone doing research on the statistics of American same-sex married couples
to obtain accurate numbers, said Gary Gates, who is affiliated with The Williams
Institute, the Mercury News said.
The Williams Institute is associated with the law school at the University of
California, Los Angeles. Its purpose is to keep track of and study public policy
issues important to GLBT Americans, reported the Mercury News.
Said Gates, "It’s an official closet that the government has built."
But the Census Bureau may not have the authority on its own to do anything
else. The Defense of Marriage Act, which restricts marriage rights on a federal
level to mixed-gender couples only, "instructs all federal agencies only to
recognize opposite-sex marriages for the purposes of enacting any agency
programs," reported the Mercury News.
Marriage equality is also so new that no federal agency has yet worked out
all the details of keeping accurate records regarding families headed by two men
or two women. Said O’Connell, "The last thing anyone wants is to use the 2010
census as a trial run."
Added O’Connell, "We are just showing the data published in a way that is
consistent with the way every other agency publishes their data."
Equality advocates don’t quite agree, if for no other reason than failing to
take note of the number of same-sex marrieds nationwide seems like a means to
avoid acknowledging such families. And possibly under-evaluate the needs of
families headed by partners of the same gender.
Said Gaets, "I just think it’s bad form for the census to change a legal
response to an incorrect response."
Added Gates, "That goes against everything the census stands for."
The Mercury News item said that Gates was a consultant for the Census Bureau
about the question of whether or not to count married couples of the same gender
as married couples rather than unmarried partners.
The decision to selectively recast the demographic data of same-sex families,
said Gates, is "a systematic hiding not only of married gay couples, but gay
couples as families, which I would argue is a fundamentally political decision."
On the ground, one now-married California couple viewed the decision as
"frustrating," the Mercury News said.
Said Jim Winstead, husband of Rodney Naccarato-Winstead, "It’s just another
layer of the hurdles we have to jump, as far as our relationship being
recognized."
The couple, who would be listed as "unmarried partners" in 2010 under the
current plan, have a young son who is eighteen months old, the Mercury News
article said.
The National Center of Lesbian Rights’ Legal director, Shannon Minter, said,
"To have the federal government disappear your marriage I’m sure will be painful
and upsetting."
Added Minter, "It really is something out of Orwell. It’s shameful."
If anti-gay groups like ProtectMarriage.com have their way, Californai voters
will rewrite the state’s constitution and revoke marriage equality, limiting
marriage rights to the status of a special privilege enjoyed only by
mixed-gender couples.
ProtrectMarriage.com spokesperson Jennifer Kerns did not address the Census
Bureau’s decision, but did offer an insight as to the strategy the group would
pursue in its attempts to secure votes for the amendment.
Said Kerns, "One of our campaign cornerstones will be the fact that if the
initiative doesn’t pass that public schools will be forced to teach the
difference between gay marriage and traditional marriage."
