Comments | soleta_nf: Queer the census

soleta_nf

Queer the census

Mar 17, 2010 19:37

My friend asked me to post this:

If you're American, you can queer the census, whether you're G, L, B, T, or a straight ally.

politics

Comments 7

ellixis March 17 2010, 23:17:50 UTC

Signed the petition and ordered a sticker. :D

soleta_nf March 17 2010, 23:27:43 UTC

Yay!

The stickers are pretty.

hnarbit March 20 2010, 16:17:22 UTC

I'm gonna be honest and admit I don't know what I think about this. The Census doesn't ask about a lot of things like religion, education, etc. (The short form only has 10 questions: http://2010.census.gov/2010census/how/interactive-form.php) I don't think it's an act of discrimination to not ask about sexuality; I think it's that it's irrelevant to the point of the Census with a capital C. They're just counting people to redistribute representation equally ( ... )

soleta_nf March 20 2010, 20:47:12 UTC

Interesting. Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I'll pass them on to my friend.

katherine_carla March 21 2010, 03:37:55 UTC

It's discriminatory of folks who don't fit into binary gender/chromosomal sex categories.

It asks whether folks are male or female. It doesn't include intersex, transgender, MTF, FTM, genderfluid, etc. And if you write ANYTHING extra on the form you invalidate it.

As to sexual orientation, I agree it doesn't ask questions about a lot of demographic categories, however the Census is the most robust source of survey data in the US, a lot of research is based on it and funding decisions are made with it. No other institution has the manpower or funds to get as accurate a count of reported sexual orientation (or any other category) and we are sorely lacking in that data.

hnarbit March 30 2010, 13:55:13 UTC

I agree with you on the gender issue entirely. I feel like opening the Census up to questioning sexuality could be perceived by some to be a slippery slope. In all honesty, I don't care. But as I pointed out, then is the Census to be used to count religion, disability, education level, etc.? Surely the government has a vested interest in those and more issues as well. The Census isn't meant to be a data collection tool on all possible aspects of American life. However, they used to ask if you had a radio (1930, I think), so obviously this is an evolving practice. It will be interesting to see where it goes ( ... )

Thread 5