U.S. Census Won’t Ask About LGBT Identities

The 2020 Census will not ask people about their sexual orientation or gender identity. An earlier draft of survey questions for the American Community Survey included those topics, but officials explained that this was a mistake.

LGBT activists say this makes them feel excluded. Do you think such questions would be appropriate or would be a violation of privacy on the part of the government?

I think it would be good to know how many people we are talking about, as the country wrestles with these issues. I predict that the census will include the questions after all, even though they have never been asked before.

From U.S. Census To Leave Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity Questions Off New Surveys : The Two-Way : NPR:

The U.S. Census Bureau published a list on Tuesday of more than 50 planned topics of questions for the 2020 Census and the American Community Survey.

Hours after it first appeared online, one of those topics was removed from a revised report: sexual orientation and gender identity, which was listed as “proposed” on the second-to-last page of the original report. . . .

Questionnaires for the census and the American Community Survey have not asked for sexual orientation and gender identity before, although the bureau has collected information about same-sex couples based on answers to questions about a respondent’s sex and relationship to other people in a household.

Many LGBT rights groups were disappointed to see the topic disappear from that list. Reliable data about the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community are hard to come by, and advocates say policymakers need that information to make informed decisions.