Asking Census-Takers If They’re LGBT Reinforces Gay People As Separate And Unequal

Apr 4, 2018 by Jill

By Chad Felix Greene, The Federalist:

Many people in the media, including multiple left-wing celebrities, reacted in outrage on March 29 that the 2020 Census would not include LGBT individuals.

[…] The story that caused this firestorm was from NBC News titled, “LGBTQ Americans Won’t Be Counted in 2020 U.S. Census After All,” but it was published March 29^th 2017. As NPR reported on the same date of this year, couples living together will be asked if they are same or opposite-sex married or unmarried partners.

This does not appear to have calmed the outrage, however. Meghan Maury, policy director at the National LGBTQ Task Force argued, “The Census controls billions of dollars in federal funding, determines our representation at the state and federal levels, and impacts scores of other programs like how our school districts are drawn.” She further said, “The Trump administration appears to be hellbent on erasing LGBTQ people, but the reality is we are a significant part of the population. We’re here, we’re queer, we’re not going anywhere. We deserve to be counted in the Census.”

The focus seems to be on the idea the Census will not specifically ask individuals if they belong to the ever-growing categories typically under the umbrella of “LGBT.” An example of this concern is expressed by Ronald Lewis, a single gay man quoted by NPR: “If this is about how resources are spent or given to communities and we are talking about the LGBTQ community, not everyone is married or in a relationship.” The article argues that the lack of an LGBT specific identity question means, “there are no reliable national data about how many LGBT people live in the U.S. that can inform public policy.”

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