By Lisa Keen
It has been widely reported within recent weeks that "the White House said" it was going to start counting same-sex married couples in the U.S. Census. Although it's hard to pin down just exactly who in the White House said exactly what, the news is apparently true and it's a big deal to many in the LGBT community. Numbers count in Washington – they justify programs, illustrate the need for certain bills, and give a sense of size for a particular voting bloc. And they can counter a general tendency toward simply ignoring the existence of gays.
"This is a huge win for our community," said Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.
"Our community and allies stood up and refused to allow same-sex marriages, our families and our children to be rendered invisible in the picture of our country provided through the census." Carey notes the decision to change the Census policy towards counting same-sex married couples "gives us hope that we will also be able to get the federal government to include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the data and reporting on other critical issues, including those having to do with our health, economic issues, safety and life circumstances."
Gay U.S. Reps. Barney Frank, Tammy Baldwin and Jared Polis issued a joint press release applauding the "announcement" that the "Obama administration is seeking ways to include same-sex marriages, unions and partnerships in 2010 Census data."
Neither the White House nor the Census Bureau issued a press release about the change, and bureau spokesman Jack Martin noted that it does not affect the questionnaire itself. Among the 14 choices for describing the relationship of "Person 2" to "Person 1" are still "husband or wife" and "unmarried partner."
Martin said the bureau is developing written guidelines now to advise affected citizens how to fill it out the form. The Human Rights Campaign has already set up a Web page that advises LGBT people who are "living with your married spouse" to check "husband or wife," and other couples to check "unmarried partner."
LGBT population data expert Gary Gates says the change has an impact "only on post data collection processing." The change in processing will allow same-sex couples who are legally married to identify as each other's "husband or wife."
Prior to 2000, there was no designation that enabled same-sex couples to accurately describe their relationship, and when a same-sex partner checked off the designation of "husband or wife," the Census Bureau altered the gender of one of the two people, assuming they had accidentally misidentified their gender.
Starting in 2000, the Census form provided the new designation of "unmarried partners," which both same-sex couples and unmarried heterosexual couples could choose.
The 2010 census will be the first time in the nation's history when a same-sex couple could actually hold a marriage license and thus accurately identify themselves as "married" in the survey. Starting in 2004, Massachusetts began issuing licenses to same-sex couples. Now, four additional states do, and New Hampshire will begin doing so in January.
The change in the census "will not explicitly count civil unions and/or domestic partners," said Gates. But, he said, "it is possible" census officials will begin consideration of how to change the annual American Community Survey to count civil unions and domestic partners – a "much bigger and more expensive proposition."
Gates also noted that, while the census in 1990 and 2000 were politically unpopular with the LGBT community, they were based on "sound scientific reasoning."
"And in 2010," said Gates, "they are again doing the right thing scientifically, which comports with the right thing politically."
"Granted, change at the census can be a bit slow and can require prodding," said Gates, "but they are not the bad guys."
The LGBT community has been discussing and prodding for a change in the census since before 1990, and the change for 2010 is another important incremental change.
