The next census won’t include questions related to sexual orientation or gender identity, the Census Bureau announced Tuesday, a move that’s drawn sharp rebuke from LGBT rights organizations. A draft of subjects planned for the 2020 census, the next year the decennial survey will be conducted, initially had a proposal to include sexual orientation and gender identity for the first time. As The Washington Blade first noted, no U.S. census or American Community Survey ― a yearly effort that tracks population demographics ― has ever included questions about sexual orientation or gender identity. Same-sex unmarried partners were first tallied by the census in 1990, but there has never been a question to identify LGBT individuals. Nevertheless, the decision to remove the proposal drew fierce opposition from civil rights groups that have long sought inclusion of such data in the census.

Source: Huffington Post March 29, 2017 05:03 UTC