White House directs census to count same-sex unions

Press Secretary Robert Gibbs confirmed during a June 22 press briefing that the Obama Administration was “determining the best way to ensure that gay and lesbian couples are accurately counted” in the 2010 census. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Administration had directed the Census Bureau to explore ways to tabulate responses to the census relationship question and produce data showing responses from married couples of the same sex.

The Bureau had decided during the Bush Administration to re-code same-sex spouse responses as “unmarried partners,” citing Defense of Marriage Act provisions that could prohibit tabulating data on marriages that are not between opposite sex couples and concerns about data quality.

Illinois Democrat Rep. Mike Quigley sent a letter earlier this week to President Obama, urging the Administration to recognize same-sex marriages in the 2010 census. Quigley and other members of the LGBT Congressional Equality Caucus wrote to the President last month, suggesting that the Bush Administration had misinterpreted the DOMA and saying that reporting statistical data on same-sex couples “simply provides basic information about how Americans respond to the Census Bureau's questions” and “is not tantamount to federal recognition of same-sex marriage.”