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Does the Census Ignore Trans People?


CENSUS 2010 X390 (2010.CENSUS.GOV) | ADVOCATE.COM

Writing for The Progressive Media Report, Kalil Cohen argues that the 2010 census shortchanges transgender people by not allowing them to identify as anything other than male or female.

"The reality is that there are not only two sexes, but these are still the only two options on the 2010 census form," Cohen writes. "This leaves people who fall outside the categories of 'male' or 'female' unable to identify themselves on the census. This prevents transsexual, transgender, intersex and other gender-variant individuals from accurately being counted by the 2010 census."

Cohen believes the census's limiting of gender description to male and female will hinder funding for programs benefiting gender-variant people.

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Reader Comments
  • Name: Michelle
    Date posted: 3/29/2010 5:40:19 AM
    Hometown: Hampton, NH

    Comment:

    Sex and gender aren't the same thing. The Census doesn't ask your gender. It asks your sex. (Stop being juvenile about the word "sex") I'm genderqueer and my sex is female, so I checked female. It's an anatomical reality. If you're transitioning you should mark the sex you will be on April 1st. There will be another Census in 10 years when you can again mark your sex, whatever it may be by then. I do agree there should be a third category for intersex folks to mark if they so choose. It really does not help us that our own community keeps conflating sex and gender and cannot just be grownups about it. The government does the American Community Survey more frequently and collects more detailed data.

  • Name: Tod
    Date posted: 3/28/2010 4:15:33 PM
    Hometown: West Hollywood

    Comment:

    Charles: That's my point, how are the many Latin categories relevant to our census? Sorry, my bad, I mixed a comparison of a country with a city. Certainly I know the difference. Yes, I should have wrote Argentina and France. I thought about that later but figured people would still understand what I meant. But thanks for pointing that out.

  • Name: Davya
    Date posted: 3/28/2010 1:30:51 PM
    Hometown: Wynnewood, PA

    Comment:

    I want to be known as a woman, for that is how I feel and how I identify. However, if my issues being made important through numbers of folk like me being recorded means some scribbling little bureaucrats to know the truth, I couldn't mind less.

  • Name: Kate
    Date posted: 3/28/2010 11:53:37 AM
    Hometown: New Bern NC

    Comment:

    The problem with this is that many transgender men and women do not want to be known as transgender but simply as the gender that they identify as. For many, that is the whole point in transitioning.

  • Name: Charles
    Date posted: 3/28/2010 6:49:05 AM
    Hometown: London

    Comment:

    Tod: Since when people from Paris (I assume you meant Paris, France) latin people? (answer: since never)

  • Name: Tod
    Date posted: 3/28/2010 5:24:42 AM
    Hometown: West Hollywood

    Comment:

    I think additional gender categories should be added to include perhaps transgendered-male and transgendered-female (final gender). It will be a hot topic but I think we should also add sexual preference (heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual). It doesn't seem right to include sexual preference with the race category since I'm technically a male white homosexual. For marriage it seems all we have to do is check the married box, but I don't remember (right now) if Domestic-Partner was included. Hopefully that won't be needed next time. What I found really odd was the many categories of Latin that were included. Why do we need to know if someone is from Argentina anymore than say, Paris? Maybe they should just ask, are you an illegal immigrant -- that's a joke. When I finished the questionnaire I thought "that's it, that's all you want to know and gather?" It seemed a missed opportunity.

  • Name: Other/LGBT treated separate and unequal
    Date posted: 3/27/2010 10:44:11 PM
    Hometown: CA.

    Comment:

    As LGBT we are treated as a seperate race so we should identify as such! On question 9 check "other" -fill in the box below "LGBT".

  • Name: Philip Johnson
    Date posted: 3/27/2010 10:20:51 PM
    Hometown: Los Angeles

    Comment:

    I answered "other" even though I'm a male. I believe there should be a box for this so I protested on behalf of all the people different than I. Hopefully the government reads it and cares.

  • Name: Warner
    Date posted: 3/27/2010 8:05:38 PM
    Hometown: Salem, OR

    Comment:

    I still think they need for 2020 to add box for gay/straight/bi/trans/etc. I am not married or in a domestic partnership... so I cant be counted.



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