Get counted! Why the Census is crucial to gays
By Diane Silver, 365gay.com
03.03.2010 8:00am EST
When gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans receive their census forms this month, they will have an historic opportunity to smash stereotypes – even though the form ignores a large portion of the LGBT population.
"Without data, you have no needs, no identity, no funding"
So say activists and demographers who also have this advice for LGBT people: Grit your teeth, fill out the census form and return it on time. (See more on how to be counted in the census.)
“Without data, you have no community portrait, and without a portrait, you have no needs, you have no identity, you have no funding; the census has always had a civil rights component to it,” says Jaime Grant, the director of the Policy Institute at The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.
The census is a once-a-decade snapshot of the U.S. population counting lives where on Census Day, April 1. The count determines the number of seats each state gets in the U.S. House of Representatives. Census data also guides the distribution of $400 billion in federal funding for schools, hospitals and public safety.
For minority groups like LGBT Americans, the census is even more important. Census data can be used to counter stereotypes, win court cases and break legal barriers. “The more invisible we are, the more powerless we are, the less represented and the less understood,” Grant says.
The history of LGBT Americans and the census is mixed. For the first 200 years of the census, LGBT people were ignored. Lesbians and gays did not appear in the census until 1990. Even then, their appearance was an accident.
Much more:
http://www.365gay.com/news/get-counted-why-the-census-is-crucial-to-gays/(On edit: Missed a line.)
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