Till the Census Do Us Part?

The result of
this outrageous exercise in governmental hubris will be
that the federal government will not have an accurate count
of the reality of American communities in 2010. The
policy will, for example, require that the couple's
children be listed as having a single parent. And it
will cause the census to undercount families, defined as two
or more people in the same household related by birth,
adoption, or marriage.

In the weeks
since the election of Barack Obama as president, Joe Biden
as vice president, and the most pro-LGBT Congress in
history, there has been much talk about legislative
priorities. We must pass hate-crimes legislation and
protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans
in the workplace, including allowing us to serve openly and
honestly in the military. However, repeal of the
Defense of Marriage Act, a move the incoming
administration supports, is undoubtedly a heavy lift
and is not often mentioned as a first-out-of-the-gate
priority.

The census will
be quickly upon us. If this current census plan to edit
same-sex married couples out of their data is not addressed
soon, the legacy of the first African-American
president of the United States will include treating
gay and lesbian Americans not merely as less than full
citizens of our country but denying our existence
altogether. The gut-wrenching irony of that
possibility should not be ignored.