Donald Trump is “erasing” LGBT+ people from history as he removes sexuality from the 2020 census.
The US’s 2020 Census will not include a question which allows people to identify their sexuality or gender identity. This means that no or very little LGBT data will be collected about the community, effectively erasing them from the history books.
It could also have an impact on how the US government writes its laws and appropriately funds programmes which affect the LGBT community. The National LGBTQ Task Force has said, “We’ve Been Erased from the US Census and American Community Survey” and called it “another attack on LGBTQ people’s freedom, justice, and equity”.
Meghan Maury, Criminal and Economic Justice Project Director, National LGBTQ Task Force said,
“Today, the Trump Administration has taken yet another step to deny LGBTQ people freedom, justice, and equity, by choosing to exclude us from the 2020 Census and American Community Survey. LGBTQ people are not counted on the Census—no data is collected on sexual orientation or gender identity. Information from these surveys helps the government to enforce federal laws like the Violence Against Women Act and the Fair Housing Act and to determine how to allocate resources like housing supports and food stamps. If the government doesn’t know how many LGBTQ people live in a community, how can it do its job to ensure we’re getting fair and adequate access to the rights, protections and services we need?”
The National LGBTQ Task Force have started a petition demanding for the LGBT+ community to be counted and support the collection of sexual orientation and gender identity information in the Census, in the American Community Survey, in the National Survey of Older Americans Act Participants, and the Centers for Independent Living’s Annual Program Performance Report.
The move comes on the back of the White House’s official sites removing all traces of LGBT policy.
