US Census To Count Gay Couples

Obama blew another make-up kiss to the gays yesterday, when the White House announced the 2010 Census will be the first to include same-sex couples, reversing a Bush administration interpretation of the Defense of Marriage Act that prevented the release of such information. In the past, gay couples that identified as married were down-graded to "unmarried partners" when the final counts were tabulated.

This news is exciting, but particularly so for Andy, who is an archivist and historian by day. He's seen his share of ambiguous census documents. Who are these two male academics living together in the 1930 Census, the second of the two listed as "partner" to the head of the household?


Landlord and tenant, perhaps...or top and bottom? Who knows? It's hard to determine the exact nature of a relationship when two unrelated people of the same gender are simply listed as living together.

The White House is still, according to the Wall Street Journal, "seeking ways to include same-sex marriages, unions and partnerships" in the Census, so we're not sure exactly what this means. Still, it's a big step for gay people; any time an institution changes to reflect our existence, we consider that a very good thing. We wonder how inclusive this will really be, though. Gay single people will still be invisible. And how many closet-cases and paranoids will just lie?

One thing we hope is that shining a light on us will prove how (depressingly) normal married gays are. The Census is already proving us right with this study showing that married couples -- straight, gay or lesbian -- are remarkably similar in demographic breakdowns like income and education level. See, we really are just like you, straight people! We can be boring and predictable, too!