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News: LGBTQ Citizens Not In 2020 Census

LGBTQ Americans looking to be counted and recognized by the State may need to look past 2020 for that to happen. In a move that has disappointed activists, a just-released draft of the 2020 US Census shows that proposed questions regarding sexual orientation and gender identity have been removed.

The questions in the US Census reflect a list of categories that the US Census Bureau plans to track. The data collected is then used by federal agencies to make a multitude of decisions from health care, equal employment opportunities, and more.

A previous draft of the 2020 survey that was released included questions about sexual orientation and gender identity, and would have been the first Census to include LGBTQ Americans. However, the proposed additions were suddenly removed, with the Census Bureau saying this inclusion was a mistake.

This was affirmed by a statement the Bureau sent to NBC News, which said: “The Subjects Planned for the 2020 Census and American Community Survey report released today inadvertently listed sexual orientation and gender identity as a proposed topic in the appendix. This topic is not being proposed to Congress for the 2020 Census or American Community Survey. The report has been corrected.”

The removal from the 2020 Census comes after the Trump administration removed questions about LGBTQ senior citizens from the National Survey of Older Americans Act Participants. The 2014 version of the survey included questions about LGBTQ senior citizens. Just like the Census, this survey helps determine funding for groups that work with older LGBTQ Americans.

The push to include LGBTQ Americans in the census is one that has been happening for years. In 2009, more than 100,000 LGBTQ people included “Queer the Census” stickers on their 2010 census envelopes, inline with an initiative by the National LGBTQ Task Force.

In April 2016, nearly 80 members of Congress — from both Democrats and Republicans — asked that the census and American Community Survey add questions about sexual orientation and gender identity.

How do you guys feel about this latest blow to the LGBTQ community? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.


There are 36 comments

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  1. anonimatovato

    This is just stupid and clearly homophobic. In reality we don’t need a census to know we’re all queer and here to stay, but to remove that just because is plain stupid. Republicans behind this right? Business as usual. They should admit they’re the real ‘snow flakes’ lmao!

    • Brandon Best

      Keep believing your own propaganda and blame Republicans for everything. Not that’s truly stupid. The next time you can’t get it up you’ll know who to blame.

  2. Walter

    Misleading headline. All are being counted…. w/o the additional tag of L G B Q , whatever. It’s a count basically, not a complete profile history.

    • TiredOfIt

      I think we should also start counting Trumptards…make it easier for when we start rounding them up for meth, opioid and fake religion rehab.

  3. Randy

    To use the census to find out what makes your dick hard is a gross misuse of taxpayers dollars, besides violating our right to privacy. The census should count citizens only and that is all the information the government needs.

    • Dave

      I don’t agree. It’s important for a society to know spending habits, salary, etc etc to be able to offer better services for its population.

      • Lamar

        Or, lack of better services, depending on the income or people of color, too. There was a case a few decades ago, where food distributors were shipping there “expired” goods to zips with higher numbers of black people and lower incomes areas.

      • Corey

        The department of human services exists for exactly that purpose. The national census needs no other purpose than to count how many people live here. Why are you defending nanny state policies about privacy?

      • R

        I just think it’s too bad the people who spawned T-rump and Pene were heterosexual. The world could have escaped a great deal of bigotry.

  4. Nick

    Just have the LGBTQ write it in any where they can. I do that sometimes when i vote for someone. Also i have put gay on forms not asking if gay lol

  5. TiredOfIt

    Mike Pence at work yet again. He’s been up to other no-good crap too. He’s working now on getting HIV infection removed from the list of disability-causing diseases. 40% of the LGBTQIwhatevers voted for these two nut cases…you reap what you sow!

  6. Jay R

    This might seem like a minor item in the overall census but it may be just the beginning of a wider attack on LGBTQ citizens by Trump, Pence and most Republicans. Minorities, immigrants, refugees, the press, the intelligence agencies, women, veterans, unions, education, healthcare and so many others are facing discrimination. There is a history of this behavior in other countries such as 1930-40 Germany and some others currently that actually advocate death for LGBTQ people. Members of this site need to be keenly aware of this possibility and resist.

  7. Not intersted

    I’m refusing to participate in the census. Constitution proves for a census for only one reason to determine the number of representatives allotted to each state. All these other questions are not invasion of privacy. So I’ll boycott it. Last time i just made shit and left blanket all personal stuff.

  8. Jeff

    I feel that in a period of time when we all want to b equal, they are treating everyone equal by not asking these questions. We are all just numbers

  9. Pork C. Fish

    The Census should only be for counting citizens. Orientation is not necessary, nor are any demographic questions. Simple question: Are you a citizen or not?

    Article II, Section 2. Simple. For purposes of taxation and Congressional apportionment. That’s it.

    Race, economic status, sexual orientation, these are all unnecessary and unconstitutional. You think Facebook messed with your data? Do you trust the government to have this information?

    Stop with this White Nonsense and go and run some hapless bakery into the ground.

  10. Jeff

    I completely disagree with the conclusions of this article. If I had a lot of time I might go into my analysis supporting my disagreement….but the short answer is: the government has absolutely NO business asking deeply private and personal or intimate questions within the scope of a census. As a matter of principle, it has no business asking many of the questions it currently asks.

    Other than the size of my household and a few other minimally invasive questions, I have not nor will I answer any personally intrusive questions. That includes, income, mortgage info, email addresses and anything else beyond the “count”; and, I certainly would not answer invasive questions about sexuality.

    I do not question the right of anybody else to divulge this info. If you want to write “I’m gay” fifty times on your census return envelope…go for it.

  11. Don Hohoho

    As important as the census is, a boycott will certainly destroy its effectiveness, so a nationwide boycott should be able to change its contents. It is used for many purposes, and serves as a vital historical record. What the questions are should be determined by us. However, some information is not the government’s business, even if anonymous, so we need to figure out what we want.

  12. PostGayGrandDad

    Whew.

    If they don’t have the info they can’t come round us up for the camps.

    Either way someone is going to get his panties all in a bunch.

  13. Mark

    Dave – spending habits, salary, etc. are one thing; but who I’m getting head from or fucking is not needed and private. Besides, I would guess 80%+ wouldn’t give the correct answer anyways. So the results wouldn’t be accurate.

  14. View from The South

    First, they deny your existence as citizens.
    Then, they can deny you true citizen’s rights.
    Eventually, it’s Kristallnacht & concentration /”re-orientation” camps.
    This is how ethnic cleansing begins.

    Be Afraid; Be VERY Afraid. And Thank whatever deity or spirit(s) you pray to that SCOTUS has the Precedence Principle practically engraved on every desktop. (SCOTUS very rarely revisits/ reviews its prior rulings.) For now…

    The fact is, we REALLY have NO idea how many LGBTQ folk reside in the US. The vast majority of us look and act like our neighbors and coworkers, and the probability of being “out” varies widely by generation. The majority of census data are collected thru mailed paper & pencil forms. There are subsets of questions that only are given on some randomly-selected forms (“sub-sampling”; stay w me, keep your mind off sex for a few minutes–there is no “Dom-sampling” in demograohismc statistics!), but not others, and beyond basic demographics, the data are de-identified, to prevent privacy violations. There is no valid demographic, statistical, scientific, social or any other reason to exclude sexual orientation and gender identification questions, either from the Senior study, nor from the actual census.

    Yeah, it feels risky to out yourself to a form.

    But it takes real courage to stand up & be counted, so that our voices will be heard more clearly, more loudly, and more effectively. Is not “We’re here, we’re Queer, And We’re 10% of the Population!” more effective than the shorter version, in shaping opinion?

    Yes, we have to tell our stories, so others will see that we are more alike than different, thereby gaining allies.

    But numbers speak. And while attendees at an inauguration can be touted and disputed and dismissed, Census data are considered authoritative (but not perfect). In politics & the prevention of marginalization, social/cultural/and
    actual genocide, SIZE MATTERS!

    It would appear that the current Congress & Administration are a little bit concerned about size, in this case.

    We need to be counted in the census: the out ones, the closeted ones, the transitioning ones–even the “leave-me-alone-&-mind-your-own-business” ones. For if we are not counted in the census, the alternative risks becoming grim anecdotes & deniable estimates, as is the case with Russia, Kazakhstan, Iran, and much of sub-saharan Africa–a very real, but deniable genocide. Because, after all, gays don’t count, do they?

    If we aren’t counted, then we won’t count.

  15. Jake

    Just another topic that doesn’t need to be discussed. The census is a joke, the government already knows how many citizen are in this country by the birth and death records. Would you be for a question in the census that asked if you are here illegally and how many times you were deported and returned again illegally? You liberal gays are just plain dumb on several things. Why can’t you keep your sexual orination to yourself and just live your life and be an adult instead of acting like a baby. You blame everything on the GOP and Christians that you don’t agree with, just accept the fact the world doesn’t revolve around you being gay and everything you want or agree with or what you think you need instead of as the country as a whole.

  16. Matt

    This is typical Alt-Left, tempest-in-a-teapot thinking. This is not about “know[ing] [the] spending habits, salary, etc etc [of gay Americans] to be able to offer better services for its population.” It’s the first step is seeking preferential treatment.

  17. Ren S

    My belief – Sexual orientation, gender identity, etc are all social stats…the only thing the census should be focused on are professional and economic stats. So I’m fine with it….it wouldn’t be a bother in anyway tbh

  18. Anthony sloan

    To exclude LGBTQ individuals in any way, shape, form, or manner is just wrong, and this administration(trump) has gone out of their way to single out LGBTQ individuals in a manner that is not just disgusting but is bigoted and homphobic. So much for the so called Christian donald trump loving thy neighbor.

  19. Johnny

    The only thing I tell the census is a number because that is what the Constitution calls for. Why do you insist on interjecting sexual behavior into EVERYTHING? It’s only the business of myself, and is therefore PRIVATE.

  20. Jeffrey

    Dave, What difference does it make if I am gay straight black or white? If you want to know my spending habits look at the sales at the local level. They will tell you what I am buying and how much I am spending. If you want to know my salary, look at my tax returns.
    Being a gay man is not all that I am. I am an American that like most doesn’t want the government in my bedroom.
    If we want to be part of society I don’t think putting us in a separate group or classification is the way to go.
    We are doctors, lawyers, veterans and most importantly American citizens.

  21. Scott

    To include a careful, sophisticated, scientifically-phrased, carefully-edited question on an US Decennial census would provide the potentially most and more accurate population percentage since the vaunted Kinsey study of the late 1940s-early 1950s time. Given that census responses are kept secret for some 70-plus years (the 1940 Census results have just recently first been released), the privacy concerns would be minimal and over-weighed by their historical and scientific importance to the future of the 2090s.

  22. Lamar

    Dave as much as I adore you, with all do respect, though, bro….

    Finding or “pin-pointing, mapping-out” areas of any “fringe-group” or “minority”, is just almost, never, a good thing in the States, as history has it, and most folks in America know it, as clearly stated on here.

    My fear is, Dave, “that’s not all.” Did you see or hear of what happened in an Area of Detroit, just last Summer; where a primarily black populous were exposed to leaded water, and the water-management knew it and did nothing about it for the longest time? You know why, Dave, because of the zip they live in and what they knew about that zip, see, who lived in it, “them.”


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