It took major political pressure and direction from the White House, but it’s official: The 2010 U.S. Census will record and report raw data about Americans in same-sex relationships. It’s a stark departure from the Bush administration, which collected the data but barred its release.
Continuing current policy, the new guidelines state that software used by Census enumerators will recode answers given by same sex-partners who mark their relationship status as “husband or wife,” to “unmarried partner.” But then, in late 2011, Census officials will for the first time release the raw state-by-state data on same-sex couples that marked their relationship status as “husband or wife.”
The new policy marks a continued shift in how the Census handles declarations of same-sex partnerships. In 1990, enumerators made a practice of changing the sex of a person described as the husband or wife of a head of household to reflect the opposite sex. In 2000, the bureau instead edited the data to describe same-sex couples as “unmarried partners.”
The Census will first report same-sex marriage data later this year when it releases the 2008 American Community Survey. The results of the annual housing and population survey will include unedited responses regarding relationship status.
And then Nate Silver will slip the data through his magic number cruncher at FiveThirtyEight and yield fantastic trending data on how we are taking over America!
MitchNYC
Nothing like data
M Shane
Does somebody have to be the wife? Well guys, don’t fight!
Blah
Be afraid, be very afraid. Considering how anti-gay Obama is (at least according to one esteemed LGBT blog), this is his admin’s ploy to collect data on the gays so that they can be rounded up later and herded into concentration camps.
JoeB
@Blah: yeah, but just the married ones… those who mark ‘single’ can still be heathen sodomites.
M Shane
Imagine what could have happened with gay data had a monster like Bush declared Martial Law (2006 Patriot Act) afterall of the Unconsttutional things he is guilty of.
Whup-ass Master
So we only count if we’re not single?
This means absolutely nothing. Until they include a field for GAY (regardless of marital status) we remain invisible.
Nice try. FAIL.
Timothy
“The 2010 Census Will Include Gay Couples”
Well, no, not quite. It will NOT include gay married couples; actually it will change their entries and recategorize them as ‘unmarried partners’, sort of like ‘roommates that boink’.
If you married in CA last summer, and you marked “married”, the government will cry, “You’re not married; you’re a big homo!” and remark your box to correct your stupid ‘mistake’. And you will forever be in the US Census for your great-great-grandchildren to read as “unmarried”.
But the secondarily released data will give state-by-state info on how many people they insulted by changing their legal married status to “unmarried”.
Usefull? yes
Insulting as hell? You better believe it
The Gay Numbers
The level of stupid here is amazing. How does one use the positive (they will count gay couples) to argue the negative (they will not count gays)? Amazing.
Quack
Come on Queerty, no “Obama Wants to Know Where The Fags He Bashes Sleep” headline? What, did your deal not call back today or something? STEP IT UP, BITCHES.
epluribusunumjk
A small step, but a step in the right direction nonetheless.
Andrew
Great! How exciting! The federal government will collect data on me and my partner — but won’t otherwise recognize us when it comes to civil rights, benefits, taxes, etc. etc. Yay! The Census is coming! The Census is coming!
SM
Census data will document the reality of same sex marriage in the United States.
Let’s just bash everything being done to lay out the argument for your equality fights like DOMA.
sounds productive.
edgyguy1426
@SM: I think they were referring to couples and not only marriages. ..and why are you posting this anyway, being in neither?
edgyguy1426
then ALL roommates should check that we’re in a couple, because they don’t have any documentation to find to prove otherwise…
Peter
Hey, this is great news. Obama put effort into this change; and at last there can be some positive information; So do not screw it up at census time.
Dave
Who cares? I never have or will fill out forms like this.
Grey
I think having this data is a great step. It’s not a violation of DOMA to keep stats and track data. But it does seem to reinforce this discouraging idea that you only count if you’re married. Single people don’t count?
Nizara
fuck the census – he can go suck it.
Cam
The Census is a small step but a good one. Some of those idiot Congresspeople and Senators may just get a wake up call if they find out just how many gays there are in their states. Senators in places like Montana probably have no idea that just how many lesbians are in their district, while in states like GA. the number of gay men are hopefully going to shock some fools.
lambdaengiam
I don’t care if I’m civilly united or religiously married, I want to be counted.
Otherwise:
Police will say there are no gay men or women so why worry about hate crime.
School districts will say there are no gay men or women so why teach tolerance and diversity.
Ethnic groups will say there are no gay men or women in their ethnic enclave so why have programs for gay Hispanics or gay Asians or gay Arabs.
Your neighbors will not know where you or your gay friends live, but they will have to realize that gay men and women live EVERYwhere.
Even if you are white and easily pass in sports bars or corporations or police forces, stop allowing the majority to decide that gay men and women do not exist.
Count your boyfriend, count your girlfriend.
Count yourself.
ewe
yeah right. census shmensus. This is the biggest waste of money. They have no intention of representing gay couples. It is merely a registry and it always has been.