The Department of Commerce will release raw data gathered on married same-sex couples in the 2010 U.S. Census.
Under the Bush Administration, same-sex spouses were reported as “unmarried partners.” While the Department of Commerce reports that it will take several years to get software updated to recode the designation specifically, they’ll release the current data before it’s officially processed, before that update happens.
“Later in 2011, the Census Bureau will release detailed tabulations from the 2010 Census, including counts from the relationship question,” said a statement from the Commerce Department. “A footnote will indicate that there are no same-sex couples included in the husband/wife relationship category. At the same time, the Census Bureau will release counts from the relationship question, by state, that show the unedited data.”
President Obama announced in June that his administration planned to look for ways to accurately count LGBT spouses.
The Census Bureau plans to start reports on the data in 2012.
“This is a tremendous victory for our community, which stood up and refused to allow same-sex marriages, our families and children to be rendered invisible in the picture of our country provided through the census,” said Rea Carey, Executive Director, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. “This is an important step forward, and one we hope signals the federal government’s burgeoning commitment to including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in data and reporting on a broad spectrum of critical matters, such as those related to our community’s health, economic issues, safety and life circumstances.”
