Census Bureau Making Special Effort to Reach LGBT People
HRC Back Story
October 26, 2009

Gary Gates, Senior Research Fellow at The Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law reviews key information about same-sex couples gathered by the census.

Dozens of people packed the San Francisco lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Community Center on Thursday to learn about the importance of participating in the 2010 Census.

“Census data breaks stereotypes,” said Gary Gates, Senior Research Fellow at The Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law. Gates was one of several speakers at the census roundtable, which was also attended by several U.S. Census Bureau officials.

Gates noted that Census data shows that not all LGBT people live in urban areas – one in six same-sex couples live in rural areas – and that LGBT people come from diverse backgrounds — one in four same-sex couples are non-white.

The 2010 Census is the first time the Census Bureau is making special efforts to reach out to LGBT people, said Tim Olsen, assistant chief of the agency’s field division. Olsen added that efforts should start now to include questions about sexual orientation, gender identity and domestic partnerships in future government surveys.

HRC and the Williams Institute are both members of the Our Families Count census public education partnership.