Same Sex Census

If there is one thing that Obama could do that would actually make me a little less angry… it’s merge my love of statistics and gay rights!  The White House is “seeking ways” to include same sex couples in the census.  It might not seem like a lot but the census could be the first time that our families and relationships count (zing!).  Also, the census is a wonderful way to capture demographic information to study society and develop policy, so anything that makes LGBT people more visible is great.  Now if only we could get a tally on trans folk…

Of course, I don’t particularly envy the administration official tasked with figuring out how to count us.  Because of the cluster-fuck that is gay rights across this country, the are almost as many different types of same-sex relationships as there are states.  For instance, in Massachusetts it’s easy to define a same-sex couple if they have been married.  But in Oklahoma there are 0 rights for same-sex couples.  Or in New York City you have domestic partnership benefits where you get a smattering of rights.  So which level do you accept as a relationship?  Do they say “You must have a full marriage” which you can only do in four states (I guess technically you also have the left over California marriages and then the two states that recognize out of state same-sex marriages)?  Do they say marriage and civil unions which you can only do in 7 states (well, technically a few more again)? Or do you include people in domestic partnerships (which is in many states, including some with gay marriage, plus a smattering of cities, counties and municipalities across the country)?

It might seem to make sense to include anyone who categorizes themselves as in a “long term same-sex partnership.”  I used that qualification in my senior thesis when I interviewed gay couples.  But this is not a very scientific qualification.  Some people together for 1 year may think of themselves as long term while a couple together for 4 years may not.  As Census workers fan out across the country, they have to be extremely standardized.  This will inevitably lead to questions of what qualifies as “long term.”   I quantified long term as seven years.  Why?  I’m not really sure.  It was arbitrary and whatever the Census picks will be just as arbitrary. (In case you were wondering, this is why ‘leaving it up to the states’ doesn’t work and this is why the framers gave us a Full Faith and Credit Clause.)

I don’t know if there is a pretty answer to this.  I don’t think the Census can count just legally recognized marriages and civil unions because it will give you only a tiny proportion of couples.  This would leave my poor brothers and sisters in places like Oklahoma and Tennessee without any representation.  It’s hard enough to be sexual minority in those places without adding more indignity by having their relationships not count.  I would find it a bit unsettling if maps come out of how many same-sex couples there are in the US and there are huge zeros over 43 states.  It’s like when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was asked at Columbia U about gays and he said “In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals, like in your country. We don’t have that in our country.” Because trust me, after the Census if gay couples in these states are ignored, some backward, knuckle-dragging Senator from Oklahoma will say this: “In Oklahoma, we don’t have homosexuals, like in your state. We don’t have that in our state. In Oklahoma, we do not have this phenomenon. I don’t know who’s told you that we have it.”