The U.S. Dept. of Commerce one year ago today released – then quickly changed – a draft of the Constitutionally-required 2020 Census that showed the federal government would be counting the number of LGBTQ Americans. Scientists and advocates had been urging the federal government to include the question as part of the census because it helps many federal agencies determine how and where to spend their budgets.
Why are we mentioning it? Because for some reason an NBC News article, and other news articles published one year ago today, are making their way across social media as if they are new. So it’s a good time to remember that as the Trump administration is working to erase LGBT people, it is also falsely claiming it is required to ask if a Census participant is a U.S. citizen. In other words, the Trump administration is weaponizing and politicizing the U.S. census: erase the gays, target the immigrants.
“The U.S. Census Bureau, which is part of the Department of Commerce, is required to issue a list of categories it plans to track three years before the survey is conducted,” NBC News reported at the time. “Tuesday’s list showed categories ranging from race and gender to the type of plumbing in homes and the length of a person’s daily commute to work. Each category is followed by a table showing the federal agencies that rely on the data to make decisions about law enforcement, health care, equal employment opportunities and more.”
When the “proposed addition suddenly disappeared…a statement was issued by the Census bureau that called the LGBTQ inclusion a mistake.”
“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,” the U.S. Census Bureau said in a statement to NBC News. “This topic is not being proposed to Congress for the 2020 Census or American Community Survey. The report has been corrected.”
Tim Teeman, writing at The Daily Beast, explained at the time why this is a problem:
“Why did census organizers at first plan to include LGBT Americans in the census, and then—suddenly, and so far without explanation—decide not to?” he asks. “How, if not by counting them, can LGBT people be protected and have their rights, quality of life, and health maintained? By not counting LGBT people, the Government is hurting them. The case for a proper LGBT Census is a moral, as well as practical, one.”
Why is it a problem the 2020 Census will ask if you or someone in your family is or is not a U.S. citizen? Mother Jones’ Ari Berman, a voting rights expert, explains part of the reason:
Image by jasleen_kaur via Flickr and a CC license