Senate Democrats introduce bill to include sexual orientation and gender identity on census

“The spirit of the census is that no one should go uncounted and no one should be invisible,” stated Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA). “We must expand data collections efforts to ensure the LGBTQ community is not only seen, but fully accounted for in terms of government resources provided. This information can also provide us with better tools to enforce civil rights protections for a community that is too often discriminated against.”

via HuffPost

Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) introduced the Census Equality Act on Tuesday, a bill that would require the Census Bureau to add questions about sexual orientation and gender identity to the survey by 2030.

The senators who backed the bill, including Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Corey Booker (D-NJ) and Tim Kaine (D-VA), argue that the data obtained from the 2030 census will help LGBTQ people receive fundamental services like housing vouchers, Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

The U.S. census, also known as the decennial census, is performed once every 10 years and is used to estimate population as well as age, sex and race demographics. The data collected from the census also informs how much money states receive in federal funding and determines congressional and state legislative districts.

photo via KamalaHarris.org/YouTube