Gays to Be Included in 2020 Census
Politics Daily
October 26, 2009

The U.S. Census, which said in June that it would try to include same-sex couples in next year's national head count, announced today that it won't happen until 2020.

The decision to delay the count was made because of concerns about accuracy. The "evolving legal state" of gay marriage across the country led Census officials to determine that it's too soon to include same-sex couples in the overall snapshot of marital status in America, Gary Gates, a UCLA demographer and Bureau adviser, told the Associated Press.

Just as they were in 2000, gay married couples will be included in the category for unmarried partners. But for the first time, the Census will provide a separate set of data on same-sex couples "who described themselves as married." That information will be available on a state-by-state basis, a decision Gates said was "less about politics and more about accurate data."

Gay advocates are urging same-sex couples to participate in the census, noting that the numbers are used in the fight for marriage rights and to show representatives in Washington how many gay constituents they have.

The decision to count married same-sex couples reverses an earlier decision made under President Bush.