Reliable LGBT data can be hard to find. Who make up the LGBT community? Where do they live? How many are women? How many children do they have? These are some of the questions the 2010 Census can help answer.
By now, American households everywhere have received, or will receive, their ten-question 2010 Census forms in the mail—an important civic milestone that happens only once every ten years.
The 2010 Census will be the first to officially count and report raw data on same-sex marriages, civil unions and partnerships. Why is this important? In addition to determining each state's political representation in the House of Representatives and informing the distribution of billions of dollars for social services and community programs, census data could support the need for federal reform on issues like employment protection, adoption and marriage. The data also could help dispel stereotypes, myths and misperceptions, such as that lesbians only live in large cities on the coast, or that the LGBT community is predominantly white and wealthy.
What makes this year's Census even more historic is the unprecedented and welcoming outreach by U.S. Census leaders and managers to include the entire lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) and allied community in these efforts, as a way to achieve the nation's most accurate count possible. Dr. Robert Groves, Director of the U.S. Census Bureau, endorsed this initiative, ”We are charged each ten years to provide Congress with a Census they trust to be accurate and complete. We are grateful to our LGBT community partners in helping us achieve this significant responsibility, and to help educate, motivate and inspire everyone to take part and above all, to be visible and counted.”
For this initiative, the U.S. Census recruited and deployed nearly two dozen Census Bureau Partnership Specialists, across the country, specifically to work with LGBT community groups and leaders. All of these specialists are working with Che Ruddell-Tabisola, who was tapped by the U.S. Census to serve as national LGBT partnership leader and as the primary bridge between the LGBT-inspired community campaign called, “Our Families Count.”