The Census Bureau Finally Reports Same-Sex Married Couples - Could This Mean More Marriage?
Every 10 years, the US Census Bureau conducts a massive survey of US citizens designed to gather information about "population, housing, and matters relating to population and housing" (13 U.S.C. §141(g) (2002)). Despite the US Constitution Article 1 Section 2 calling for an "actual Enumeration" of the population, the Census Bureau has intentionally altered and misreported statistics about same-sex couples. In the 1990 census, the Bureau actually changed the sex of one of the two partners in a same-sex relationship in order to make the union appear like an opposite-sex one. Then, in 2000, improving in their technique somewhat, researchers merely reclassified unionized same-sex couples as "unmarried partners".
The Bureau has decided to cease this inaccurate reporting of data in 2010, however. With 6 states currently performing same-sex marriages (7 if you count California), the Census decided that it would have to begin tabulating data on gay and lesbian households. In a legal memo [pdf], the General Counsel of the Census Bureau conceded that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) did not actually prevent the census from gathering and reporting data on same-sex marriages as they had previously believed, and that the census should report facts and facts, rather than as politically colored alterations of facts.
Unfortunately, the census software is already programmed to reclassify married same-sex couples as "unmarried partners" as occurred in 2000. But the Bureau has promised to release unedited data in late 2011, along with a special report geared toward same-sex marriages in 2012.
This change is not only a big step in recognizing the legitimacy of our relationships, but may also encourage legislators in states without marriage inclusive laws to reexamine their motivations. Previously, there was no way for a Representative in, for example, Minnesota to see how many same-sex couples resided in his or her district. Now with the census data available, he or she could see how many gay and lesbian partners had crossed the border north into Canada or south into Iowa to marry, despite their own state's refusal to recognize it. The report will likely be an eye-opener to many legislators who do not believe same-sex marriage to be an issue important to their constituents. As a result, we may see even more states reconsider marriage inclusive laws when the census data is available in 2011.
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