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2010 census won't count gay marriages


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Although gay marriage is legal in Massachusetts and California, census officials say that same-sex partners in both states who list themselves as spouses will be recorded as "unmarried partners" -- just as they were in the 2000 census.
Census Bureau spokesman Stephen Buckner cited the Defense of Marriage Act, approved by Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996, which prohibits the federal government from recognizing as a marriage the union of anyone but a man and a woman.

The law "requires all federal agencies to recognize only opposite-sex marriages for the purposes of administering federal programs," Buckner wrote in an e-mailed statement. "Many of these programs rely on Census Bureau statistics."

Census officials have said the agency will retain same-sex spouses' original responses but will edit them for the published census tabulations.

Critics of the policy -- and the law -- say it ignores the changing legal and political landscape in states that contain about 14 percent of the U.S. population. And it ensures that the census results will be factually incorrect, they say.
stone246

8 responses // 2010 census won't count gay marriages

  • wow, so they're trying to alter the record of the facts. hmm, why are people so scared of gay marriage? Do they think that somehow it will make their marriage less legitimate? people are dumb.
    bimmer_man
  • this is terrible. they should recognize the states marriages at least in a freakin survey.
    donkeyfly69
  • So here we go....a classic case of pissed-off losers in government finding a way to circumvent a law that was PASSED BY THE VOTERS, a.k.a. the People.

    "Oh you can marry now? That's great and all, but there's this other law that you forgot about that says we still have to call you unmarried. Sorry about that...."

    How long until they, and I mean bigoted Republicans, find enough loopholes to put gay couples right back where they started, i.e. vastly inferior rights compared to straight couples. It's just sad.
    Atropos77
  • America = Homophobic... wait... that is just people in Office. Dickheads.
    omordn
  • i don't agree with the mostly conservative backlash against gay marriage but i do want to call attention to the fact that the law which is being applied in this case was signed by a democrat. so i dont think calling out "bigoted republicans" is the best way to argue against this particular piece of legislation.
    cwood
    1 response to this
  • Then I suppose our census won't be accurate.
    Xena1128
  • I've seen a lot of good responses to this article on my site: http://www.govcentral.com/news/2248-2010-census-wont-co...

    "100% agreement here Scooby. However, all that aside...regardless of whether you approve or disapprove of same sex marriage, you SHOULD disprove of the Census purposefully reporting figures that are incorrect. If two people are legally married, they should be reported as such. If you don't like same sex marriages, then the correct avenue is to oppose the legality of such, not to undercut current state laws by pretending they don't exist."

    "Oh come on people! Isn't it time that we as a country grew the heck up!? If two people want to get married, or divorced, what should it matter to the rest of us if they are different or same sex? I think it's time we collectively get off our high horse and realize that love and companionship are not defined by some ultra religious doctrine."
    KylieStone

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