White House: 2010 census to better count gay couples

White House: 2010 census to better count gay couples

www.aikenstandard.com

SAN FRANCISCO -- U.S. Census Bureau officials said Friday that married same-sex couples will be counted as such in the 2010 national tally, reversing an earlier decision made under the Bush administration.

Steve Jost, a spokesman for the Census Bureau, said officials already were identifying the technical changes needed to ensure the reliability of the information, but remained committed to providing an accurate tally of gay spouses.

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The only reason I bring this up is the fact that this another attempt of the Obama Administration to change LAWS that they don’t want. The Executive has no right to do this.

This is NOT an issue of whether you think gay marriage is right or not. It IS an issue of whether the current administration is willing to abide by the LAW and provide an accurate accounting of the population.

Also, note that the Defense of Marriage Act was passed by the Clinton Administration and NOT by the Bush Administration as the Obama Administration would like it to appear.

"The president and the administration are committed to a fair and accurate count of all Americans," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said. "We're in the midst of determining the best way to ensure that gay and lesbian couples are accurately counted."

Enumerating married gay couples will not require any immediate changes in the census forms, which includes boxes for the genders of people living in a household and their self-reported relationships as "husband," "wife" or "unmarried partner," according to Jost.

They aren’t going to change the forms. For example, in a state that recognizes same sex marriage, they are going to allow a man married to a man to report that Man #1 is 1.) a man, and 2.) husband and then allow Man #2 to report that he is 1.) a man, and 2.) husband (I presume they won’t allow a man to report that he’s a wife). And then the third thing reported will be that there are two men in the household. In states that don’t recognize same sex marriage they are also going to allow this if the men consider themselves married.

So much for accurate data. The problem here is that census data is used for a multitude of reasons ranging from private industry uses to demographics used in the legislative process. This is just screwy and totally absurd.

The reason they’re doing it:

Since President Barack Obama took office, his administration has been under pressure from gay rights activists to take a fresh look at the issue. The White House on Friday announced that its interpretation of the act, known as DOMA, did not prohibit gathering the information. Gay marriage is now legal in six states.

“It’s interpretation”?? Look at the definition contained in the Clinton Administration DOMA text below:

Defense of Marriage Act of 1996

``Sec. 7. Definition of `marriage' and `spouse'

``In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, or of any ruling, regulation, or interpretation of the various administrative bureaus and agencies of the United States, the word `marriage' means only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word `spouse' refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.''.

I’d say that’s quite clear on the definition of marriage – no interpretation needed there.


www.aikenstandard.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 20/6/2009 by Iamonlyhuman]

reply to post by Iamonlyhuman

The year 2010 is too early to confirm the natural trend where the heterosexual population at birth decreases in time. Nature has built in the human genome a very interesting preventive measure against the overpopulation of this planet. The population of humans who will be born with a strict homosexual preference encoded in their DNA is about to increase exponentially. There are various estimates when a half of people born would be homosexuals. The time of this happening could come as early as around the year 2030.