Ms. Jeri Green
Committee Liaison Officer
Department of Commerce
U.S. Census Bureau
4600 Silver Hill Road, Room 8H182
Washington, DC 20233
National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic, and Other Populations
The undersigned organizations are grateful for the opportunity to address the National Advisory
Committee on Racial, Ethnic, and Other Populations (NAC) on the critical importance of
including the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community in data collection
efforts.
The Census Bureau (Bureau) has taken a leadership role and has been making excellent progress
at improving data collection associated with same-sex cohabiting couples. We applaud the
Bureau’s recent decision to no longer recode same-sex spouses as unmarried partners in public
data sources derived from the American Community Survey (ACS) and to include same-sex
spouses among federal statistics that identify married couples. We urge the Bureau to build on
that progress by immediately updating the “relationship to householder” question on appropriate
surveys, developing an inclusive plan to include sexual orientation and gender identity in a
broader range of federal data sets, and explicitly including gender identity in its Equal
Employment Opportunity (EEO) policy.
I. Changes to the “Relationship to Householder” Question Should Be Implemented
Immediately
We applaud the Bureau’s efforts to develop a “relationship to householder” question for surveys
like the ACS that will explicitly identify same-sex husbands and wives, same-sex unmarried
partners, opposite-sex husbands and wives, and opposite-sex unmarried partners. We understand
that these changes will significantly improve the quality of same-sex couple data and,
correspondingly, will significantly improve development of policy concerning married same-sex
couples and their families. We are grateful for the decision to implement these changes on the
Survey of Income and Program Participation and on the Current Population Survey.
However, we are concerned about delays in making these changes to the ACS, and we strongly
encourage the Bureau to accelerate their implementation. As the questions have been
successfully implemented on other national Census data collection efforts (e.g., Canada, United
Kingdom), and the Bureau has conducted its own study of the question wording, we believe that
there is sufficient scientific evidence to support implementing these questions immediately onto
the ACS.
II. The Bureau Should Develop a Plan to Include LGBT-Associated Questions in
All Federal Data Sources
The Institute of Medicine’s 2011 report on LGBT health disparities included a clear call for
LGBT inclusions across a wide range of federal data sets focused on health, socio-economic
status, and demographics. To date, federal statistical agencies have not developed a coordinated
strategy that would move data collection efforts toward full LGBT inclusion. We encourage the
Bureau, as the government’s lead statistical agency, to show leadership in developing a plan for
LGBT inclusion across federal data sources.
The Bureau has shown strong leadership in this area in the past, particularly in its efforts with the
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to address the challenges associated with same-sex
couple data collection efforts. Already, a sexual orientation measure has been added to the
National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and a similar measure is scheduled to be added to the
National Crime and Victimization Survey (NCVS). These efforts indicate a positive trend, but,
to date, neither survey includes a gender identity measure. We ask that the Bureau show
leadership and develop an interagency process to achieve full inclusion of sexual orientation and
gender identity measures within major federal surveys. These include the NHIS and the NCVS,
along with the American Community Survey, the Current Population Survey, and the Survey for
Income and Program Participation.
Without Accurate Data, It Is Harder to Respond to the Unmet Needs of the LGBT Population
Much of our knowledge about the family, health, economic, educational, and social status of
people in the United States comes from survey data. The incidence and qualitative experiences of
poverty, illness, unemployment, or income across racial, ethnic, and gender lines are routinely
measured through survey questions. Further, survey data are particularly important for assessing
the need for public policies that address racial, ethnic, gender, age, or group disparities in
important health and social outcomes, and data are necessary to evaluate the impact of those
policies.
However, we have much less information about whether and how life experiences differ by
sexual orientation and gender identity, creating a large scientific gap between what we know in
detail about other populations and what we know about LGBT people.
policy debates have heightened the need for high quality scientific data on the sexual orientation
and gender identity of adults, the aging population, and young people in the United States. In
ongoing public discussions about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender policy issues, the
practical importance of good data that accurately describe the lives of LGBT people and their
families has become increasingly obvious. Discussions of civil rights, program evaluation, public
health, and the delivery of human services must rely on sound facts and analyses that come from
survey research. But, often those facts are underdeveloped in the context of LGBT-related
policy issues because so few surveys include measures of sexual orientation and gender identity
that would allow for the identification of LGBT people.
Health, economic, and social surveys have always had to adapt to changing demands and
changing times. For example, as family structures have changed, government and private surveys
in the United States have added questions and responses that allow the study of unmarried,
cohabiting different-sex couples. Adding sexual orientation and gender identity measures is
simply one more adaptation to the changing world that surveys are designed to study, in this case
a world with an increasingly visible LGBT population.
Collecting more high-quality data on the disparities associated with LGBT status and other
social, economic, and health concerns of LGBT communities is essential if federal, state, local,
and nonprofit agencies are to adequately serve this population. The Bureau’s inclusion of new
response categories to the “relationship to householder” question in the ACS and other surveys
has provided decision-makers with strong data about the presence and needs of same-sex couples
in the United States. However, the question is limited in scope. We still know far too little about
the presence and needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people that do not have a
partner or do not live with a partner. The crucial first step in building this knowledge is adding
sexual orientation and gender identity survey measures that can help characterize the needs of
LGBT respondents to publically-funded population surveys.
The National Strategy for Suicide Prevention recognizes LGBT populations as being at a higher
risk for suicidal behavior than the general population, and recommends improved data collection
as a measure to help reduce this health disparity. Additionally, the importance of data collection
is recognized in the Affordable Care Act, which prioritizes data collection and directs the U.S.
Secretary of Health and Human Services to collect a range of data on the health disparities
associated with race, ethnicity, sex, disability status, and primary language, as well as any other
factors deemed relevant to reducing disparities. In June 2011, Secretary Sebelius drew on this
authority in the new LGBT Data Progression Plan, which commits the Department of Health and
Human Services to developing sexual orientation and gender identity questions for federally
supported health surveys. This plan recognizes that, like other underserved populations such as
communities of color and rural populations, LGBT individuals are more likely to be uninsured
and report poorer health outcomes than the general population.
Other federal sources such as the Institute of Medicine, Healthy People 2020, the Substance
Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the National Healthcare Disparities
Report indicate that LGBT individuals and their families are disproportionately likely to live in
poverty, to be uninsured, and to face substantial barriers to quality health care, including refusals
of care, substandard care, inequitable policies and practices, and exclusion from health outreach
or education efforts.
III. The Bureau Should Explicitly Include Gender Identity Among the Protections in
Its Equal Employment Opportunity Policy
We encourage the Bureau to update its Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) policy to
explicitly include gender identity. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) explicitly
forbids agencies from discriminating in employment on the basis of gender identity. The Office
states that “sex” as a basis of discrimination includes gender identity.ii
issued operational guidance requiring every agency to “ensure that agency specific plans are in
compliance with laws, rules, and regulations that make it unlawful for agencies to discriminate
for or against an applicant or employee based on race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy
or gender identity), national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation or any other prohibited
basis.”iii We strongly urge the Bureau to adopt a policy that mirrors the OPM guidance, stating
clearly that discrimination on the basis of sex (including gender identity) is prohibited.
We appreciate the Census Bureau’s strong leadership on LGBT issues, as well as its decision to
introduce a revised “relationship to householder” question on appropriate surveys. We
encourage the Bureau to build on that leadership through adoption of the recommendations
included in this comment. If the Census Bureau or the National Advisory Committee has any
questions about the content of this comment, please contact Meghan Maury, Policy Counsel at
the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, at (202) 639-6322, or by email at
[email protected]
Sincerely,
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
Advocates for Youth
American Civil Liberties Union
Anti-Defamation League
Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice
Center for Black Equity
CenterLink: The Community of LGBT Centers
Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals
Family Equality Council
Forward Together
Gay & Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD)
Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN)
GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBT Equality
Harvey Milk Foundation
Human Rights Campaign
L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center
Lambda Legal
LGBT Center of Raleigh
Long Island Gay and Lesbian Youth
The Long Island GLBT Community Center
Long Island GLBT Services Network
Marriage Equality USA
Memphis Gay and Lesbian Community Center
Movement Advancement Project
National Center for Lesbian Rights
National Center for Transgender Equality
National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs
National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce
National Minority AIDS Council
Pacific Pride Foundation
Pride Center of Staten Island
Q Center - Oregon
Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE)
Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders – Long Island
Sexuality Information and Education Council of the U.S. (SIECUS)
Transgender Education Network of Texas
The Trevor Project
Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law
Young Invincibles
7 Rivers LGBT Resource Center
i Sexual orientation and gender identity are different aspects of an individual’s identity. Transgender people, like
anyone else, may be gay, straight, bisexual, or any other sexual orientation. The discriminatory treatment that some
ii Diversity & Inclusion Reference Materials, supra note 53. iii U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Guidance for Agency-Specific Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plans 6
(2011).
