President Barack Obama is just so v. v. busy, he doesn’t have time to deal with The Gays yet! But somehow openly gay Reps. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Barney Frank of Massachusetts, and Jared Polis of Colorado found a few minutes to draft a letter to Peter Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget, and demand the millions of dollars taxpayers — which include homos, BTW — will spend on the 2010 Census go toward counting gay and lesbian couples.
George W. Bush’s White House used the Defense of Marriage Act to direct the Census Bureau to invalidate any same-sex couples checking the “married” box and put ’em back in the “single, unmarried” column.
But with same-sex marriage legal in five, soon to be six states (and counting), our elected officials are left wondering why the federal government isn’t counting legally recognized unions. You know, BECAUSE THEY EXIST.
Baldwin, Frank, and Polis join some other politicos who’ve been demanding the same thing, with plenty of demands being sent to Census Bureau Director Thomas Mesenbourg, who — and we’re only assuming here — actually carries some weight when it comes to such decisions.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Says Frank: “We are simply asking the Census Bureau to report the facts as they exist. This should not be controversial.” Silly Barney.
Jamie
Considering that the census worker stopped by my house this morning and simply handed Norm a census form, I wonder if it’s already too late for this effort to matter?
Greg Ever
@Jamie: I had a census person come earlier in the week, so yeah, I kind of think it’s too late to do anything for this one. We’ll probably have to wait until next time… and by then it will probably be a no-brainer since we will have probably make a ton of progress over the next decade.
Alex
@Jamie: No, I’m pretty sure this is some kind of practice census. The census legally cannot happen until next year.
Joey
It’s not too late. The problem is that when the forms are counted, the same-sex households that checked “Married” are automatically changed to “single unmarried”. So it can be changed as long as it’s done before the counting process.
Buffy
We’re checking “married” because we are and we’re not going to lie on the document. If the government wants to lie by changing what we stated that’s their prerogative.
Joey
I personally think gay married couples in states where it is legal should boycott the census until they are counted correctly.