Righting on the Wallz

by Kim D.

BREAKING: Trump Administration Omits LGBTQ People from 2020 Census and American Community Survey https://t.co/WZm8pBqhmM #lgbtq pic.twitter.com/vNxet7I8bG
— The Task Force (@TheTaskForce) March 28, 2017

This latest outrage has a simple answer. No. The Trump administration is not erasing LGBTQ Americans from the 2020 Census. I know that GQ said it was. Yes, I saw that The Daily Beast went on a rant and NBC Out weighed in as well. Sad to say but pearl clutching social justice warriors didn't investigate this recent fake news outrage. The mainstream media reported that the gay population had been erased so the majority just went with that narrative. Check #CantEraseUs on Twitter if you dare.

The truth is that no government census has ever asked SOGI (sexual orientation gender preference identification) questions. So the 2020 Census will not be any different from past data collection efforts. If anyone is angry about this, they should address grievances to John Thompson who heads the Bureau, an Obama holdover in the White House.

So perhaps the story here is that LGBTQ advocates were hoping to change the 2020 Census to include SOGI data, which a draft of the census shows. However these questions did not make the cut and do not appear in the final version. The Hill reveals the cut may have a simple explanation:

Some Census experts said the decision may not be meant as a political statement. The Bureau takes years to test new topics to be included among their questions, and while the agency has been researching sexual orientation questions, they may not have finalized that research or figured out just how to phrase the questions they ask.

Ben Casselman of FiveThirtyEight confirms this thinking with additional information from demographer Gary Gates who has been a supporter of collecting more LGBTQ data. According to Gates, the 2020 Census never intended to include SOGI questions:

“I can tell you with 100 percent certainty that there was never a plan to add sexual orientation or gender identity to the 2020 census,” Gates said. “That just wasn’t happening. It wasn’t even being considered.”

So perhaps it's time to unwad the rainbow flag and let go of the pearls. This non-controversy seems to have a simple explanation.

LGBT only care about the census issue because there is nothing left to complain about and they need to hate Trump over something.
— Chad Felix Greene (@chadfelixg) April 2, 2017