We’re Queering the Census big time!
The Task Force’s Queer the Census campaign continues to spark widespread community excitement and media attention. More than 100,000 Queer the Census stickers, which get slapped on census envelopes and ask the Census Bureau to count LGBT people, have already been ordered. On April 1 — National Census Day — more than 1,400 people spread the word by changing their Facebook profile photos and status messages to Queer the Census. That same day, Task Force Deputy Executive Director Darlene Nipper addressed a National Census Day congressional briefing, where she talked about the campaign and the importance of ensuring LGBT people are counted.
Watch as Task Force Executive Director Rea Carey queers her own census in this video clip:
Another integral part of Queer the Census is a petition to the U.S. Census Bureau and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius demanding that LGBT people be counted in the next census and in other federal surveys. To date, more than 50,000 LGBT people and allies have signed the petition. Though many folks have already sent in their census forms, signing the petition is one way supporters can continue to be involved. Click here to sign the petition.
The Task Force started the Queer the Census campaign because the census does not include a question about sexual orientation or gender identity. LGBT individuals are not counted. Census data is the basis for how the government allocates $400 billion each year. Census data affects everything from local school board funding to roads to federal policy; without an accurate count of the LGBT community, we lose out on funding for real, everyday services.
The Task Force was instrumental in making sure that this year’s census counts married same-sex couples, and will continue to push for the 2020 census to count ALL LGBT people. Sign the petition today – Queer the Census and check out the hundreds of photos submitted by LGBT folks and straight allies queering the census.
Here’s a sampling of some of the media coverage Queer the Census has received:
The “Queer the Census” slogan is so hot, hot, hot that it was included in this video:
Task Force member Charlene Strong is featured in this video from the U.S. Census Bureau:
Our Queer the Census campaign also got the attention of the virulently anti-LGBT group “Americans for Truth About Homosexuality.” In a recent e-mail to their membership they write: “The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is using this sticker and a national ‘Queer the Census’ campaign to turn the U.S. Census into a homosexual visibility project. … Homosexual activists led by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force demanded the ‘Queering’ of the U.S. Census – and Obama complied.”
