Trump Administration Omits LGBTQ People from 2020 Census

[Me.]

Can they do this?

“Although the Supreme Court, in 2013, struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, paving the way for the census to change the way it tracks same-sex households, the White House has sent yet another powerful signal that it considers LGBTQ concerns as frivolous.

Meghan Maury, Criminal and Economic Justice Project Director of the National LGBTQ Task Force released a statement:
"Today, the Trump Administration has taken yet another step to deny LGBTQ people freedom, justice, and equity, by choosing to exclude us from the 2020 Census and American Community Survey. LGBTQ people are not counted on the Census—no data is collected on sexual orientation or gender identity. Information from these surveys helps the government to enforce federal laws like the Violence Against Women Act and the Fair Housing Act and to determine how to allocate resources like housing supports and food stamps. If the government doesn’t know how many LGBTQ people live in a community, how can it do its job to ensure we’re getting fair and adequate access to the rights, protections and services we need? We call on President Trump and his Administration to begin collecting sexual orientation and gender identity data on the American Community Survey as soon as possible and urge Congress to conduct oversight hearings to reveal why the Administration made the last-minute decision not to collect data on LGBTQ people.”

http://www.out.com/news-opinion/2017/3/28/breaking-trump-administration-removes-lgbtq-people-2020-census

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/us-census-lgbt-americans_us_58db3894e4b0cb23e65c6cd9

[Cha]

1. We know they're cruel assholes.. they just keep proving it over and

over..

Thank you for shining the light on this, Me

[Me.]

2. How Can They Just Decide To Earase An Entire Group Of People?

The whole thing makes me sick and I seriously hope they don't get away with it.

And how are they going to prove if someone gay or straight? Can I have your gender identity card please.

[Cha]

3. I know.. I hope it comes back to bite

them and get them hoisted on their own ugly petard.. once again.

[Behind the Aegis]

4. We literally don't count.

Sadly, this is not contained to the new administration. There are many people who do not respect the lives of the GLBT.

[Me.]

5. It Has Been Questioned

As to whether or not this is fake news. How can they tell who is gay and not?

[Behind the Aegis]

19. How can you tell?

You ask.

While there are some who will opt to conceal their true sexual orientation, there are more and more gay people who will openly and honestly report their sexual orientation as much as the would their religion (or lack), political party choice, or ethic make-up.

[Lee-Lee]

6. I've answered the census and that longer community survey and never sexual orientation asked

Are there different versions that ask it? Has anyone gotten a version of the census asking sexual orientation?

[RedWedge]

7. The wording on this is bugging me. LGBTQ people are of course counted in the census.

Orientation is not included as a breakout question like race or gender.

[Warren DeMontague]

9. If it's bugging you, it's only because you're choosing to read it that way.

Really, that disingenuous argument is sort of like the people who used to argue "Gay people don't need the 'right' to marry- they already have the right to marry someone, the same as heterosexuals can"

Of course LGBTQ people are counted by the census as citizens. It is facile to imagine there aren't other reasons why their numbers should be counted from a social policy, representation and governmental perspective.

[mythology]

12. Except that is both an inaccurate analogy and blatantly not what the thread title says

It clearly says LGBT people won't be counted in the census which is false. Hyperbole doesn't help make a valid well-supported point. It's not that some people are choosing to read it that way. It's that it's actually written that way.

If the census isn't registering sexual orientation at all, it's not a valid comparison to compare it to same sex marriage versus heterosexual marriage. It's simply not including that as a variable. For your comparison to be valid, the census would have to only be counting heterosexual people and could count the LGBT community if they said they were heterosexual.

This is the problem with treating everything the Trump administration does as the worst thing of all time. It makes it hard to take some of the complaints seriously. As the article does touch on, there are some issues that relate to the LGBT community that should be accounted for and would do well to be covered in the census.

[Warren DeMontague]

14. You really have to stretch to read it that way, I think.

And not understand how the census works. Not to mention the population-based representative nature of the US government, which is why we have the census in the first place.

We had numerous supreme court cases - big, important ones- over whether and how to count African Americans in the census- how clueless does someone have to be about civics to think Trump could just walk in and magically blow off counting 10% of the population (or so, we dont know, which is why its a good question for the census) without it being a much more massive constitutional deal?

I mean, come on.

[Behind the Aegis]

17. It sort of demonstrates what I have said in another post.

People don't really care about the GLBT community. FFS, we are still considered a "wedge" issue by some on the left. When I see fallacious arguments or downplaying of the implications, it simply demonstrates to me the lack of understanding and concern for the GLBT community.

[Warren DeMontague]

18. I mean, semantically, I see what they're saying.

But again, sometimes when there are different possible interpretations for the exact same set of words, you have to go with the one that obviously makes logical sense based upon objective reality.

[Behind the Aegis]

20. LMAO!

I bet her new dishes are pupular...(insert groan).

In all honesty, I feel some look for any excuse to make an excuse when certain minorities are being mistreated, ignored, or otherwise maligned by playing word games and the like.

[milestogo]

8. I don't remember anything about that in the census.

If there are 2 adult men or 2 adult women living together, how would they know the difference between partners and roommates?

[Warren DeMontague]

10. from the OP: "in 2013, struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, paving the way

for the census to change the way it tracks same-sex households"

The last census was 2010, so the operative phrase here is paving the way, I think.

[Me.]

11. Finding Your Comments INteresting

Though still somewhat confused how this could be done 'effectively' as some might say

[Warren DeMontague]

13. I'm sorry if I'm not totally sure what you're asking me, here.

I think the point is, to survey US households on orientation, for purposes of data collection and, to my mind, representation- numbers equal power, right? But that requires visibility.

You ask upthread "how would they know who is gay or not"- they would only know how people choose to self-identify on the form.

[Me.]

15. So What Do You Think

about self-identifying? I can see both sides...yes/no.

[Warren DeMontague]

16. Seems to me there's no other way to get the data.

Somebody says they are, they are.

But, then, I'm not sure the Census investigates peoples' ethnicity declarations, either. Somebody says they belong to a group, they do.