US Census spokesperson calls being gay a "lifestyle"

[ccharles000]

http://www.americablog.com/2009/03/us-census-spokesperson-calls-being-gay.html

Well that was rather stupid, and quite 1980s of her. In addition to her language being quite offensive, the reason she mentioned the gay "lifestyle" was because we won't be in the 2010 census. Why?
"This is all about the numbers. This not about lifestyle or anything else," says U.S. Census spokeswoman Cynthia Endo.
Gee, are you counting the black lifestyle and the Asian lifestyle? How about the male and female lifestyles? Idiot.

I'm particular disturbed by the article's mention of the Defense of Marrriage Act stopping the Census from counting gays or gay couples. Oh really? Here's what the relevant part of DOMA says:
The Federal Government may not treat same-sex relationships as marriages for any purpose, even if concluded or recognized by one of the states.
That has zero to do with counting individual gay people or gay couples in the census. DOMA says the feds can't treat same-sex relationships as marriage. The census is already counting "unmarried partners," and they're including unmarried gay partners in the larger mix (they're not telling gay people not to include their partners there). The problem is that they're including straight partners too, so the numbers don't tell you much. But, in any case, counting gay couples, counting individual gay people, counting gay people who call themselves married doesn't not "endorse" gay marriage, nor does it "treat" those relationships the same as marriage. Why? Because the census counts lots of things that it doesn't treat the same as marriage. It counts how many Latinos we have in the country - is that because counting Latinos somehow treats Latinos as "marriage"? No. The census can count things without "endorsing" things. It could even count gay married couples in order to help stop the spread of God-awful gay marriage (snark, but true).

If there's still time, it would be nice for someone to fix this before 2010. And give Census spokesperson Cynthia Endo the DVD set of Will & Grace. Clearly her lifestyle needs a little updating.

[ccharles000]

1. kick

[damntexdem]

2. Don't forget that for the Census Bureau, being African American is a lifestyle.

It's all self-report.

So, if the Census doesn't WANT to treat gay marriage as marriage, or says that the DOMA prevents it, gays simply need to report themselves as married, whether or not their state allows non-hetero marriage. How is the Bureau of the Census going to know? Two guys or women living together? Many married hetero people don't live with their spouses; and many have same-sex housemates.

It's all in what one reports -- especially on a questionnaire.

But, yes, the Bureau of the Census policy is disgusting.