Counting Gays

Good news.

The gays count.

No, I don't mean the gays know how to count. I mean, we are being counted.

The Census Bureau, reversing a decision made during the Bush Administration, plans to count married same-sex couples in the 2010 census.

“They will be counted, and they ought to report the way they see themselves,” said Steve Jost, a spokesperson for the Census Bureau, who said the Bureau is already preparing for the technical challenges in making sure that the information collected is reliable.

One challenge the Bureau is facing is categorizing gay couples under civil unions or domestic partnerships or marriages. Gary Gates, a demographer from UCLA, says the bureau needs to find a way to capture accurately both legally married couples and those in civil unions or domestic partnerships.

“Thirty percent of same-sex couples in the year 2000 used the term ‘husband’ or ‘wife,’ and none of them were married…now we think maybe there are 35,000 who are legally married, but they are finding 10 times as many using that term,” Gates said.

I have a solution, Gary.

Make marriage equality the law of the land and then there would be no need to categorize and sub-categorize the LGBT community.

We'd be married, if that's what we want.

Counting made easy.