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Trump Administration Removes LGBTQ Population From 2020 Census

Trump Administration Removes LGBTQ Population From 2020 Census

The White House has submitted categories for the 2020 Census and the American Community Survey (ACS). Both “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” were proposed categories, but the version submitted Tuesday removes any reference to America’s LGBTQ population.

According to Out, the U.S. Census described the original inclusion of such categories as “inadvertent.”

Last year, various federal agencies urged the Census Bureau to include sexual orientation and gender in their data as it was crucial to their role in enforcing the law. The survey, which has been conducted every ten years since 1790, includes a wide range of questions designed to gather data on everything from languages spoken to household plumbing facilities.

Currently, questions about marital status and households enable the Census Bureau to garner information on same-sex couples, but it’s simply not enough. Improved analytics on how many gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans there would mean better allocation of resources for issues affecting our community, and underscore the importance of equality and inclusion nationwide.

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.”

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