U.S. Census Leaves Out Thousands of Gays and Lesbians: Findings Released by Institute for Gay and Lesbian Strategic Studies (IGLSS)

3/10/2003

From: Lee Badgett of the Institute for Gay and Lesbian Strategic Studies, 413-577-0145

AMHERST, Mass., -- The U.S. Census 2000 count of same-sex couples missed at least a hundred thousand more couples, according to a study released today by the Institute for Gay and Lesbian Strategic Studies (IGLSS).

Two surveys of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people show an undercount of 16 - 19 percent of same-sex couples, as documented in "Left Out of the Count: Missing Same-sex Couples in Census 2000." (IGLSS, March 2003)

Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people who lived with a same-sex partner on April 1, 2000, could list themselves as "unmarried partners" on the official census form. IGLSS surveyed individuals in same-sex couples about their census responses at the Millennium March for gay equal rights. A second survey asked similar questions of online respondents to a Harris Interactive/Witeck-Combs survey.

"The people we surveyed were politically aware and were more likely to know about and use the 'unmarried partner' option," according to Marc Rogers, Ph.D., one of the authors of the report. "They're a best-case scenario, meaning the actual undercount is likely to be far higher."

The surveys also found that more than two-thirds of the couples not using "unmarried partner" instead listed themselves as "housemates/roommates" on the census forms. When asked why they did not call themselves unmarried partners, respondents reported confidentiality concerns and a lack of fit of census options for their own family configurations.

The U.S. Census Bureau will release a report this week describing the 594,691 same-sex couples in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

"Our study implies that the new census data should be interpreted carefully," cautioned M. V. Lee Badgett, Ph.D., co-author of the IGLSS study. "We found that couples who used the unmarried partner option had higher incomes in one survey and higher levels of education in the other. So the missing couples might be very different from the couples that the Census Bureau describes."

REPORTERS/EDITORS NOTE: To obtain a copy of this new report, call 413-577-0145, or visit IGLSS online at http://www.iglss.org.

The Institute for Gay and Lesbian Strategic Studies is a nonprofit, independent think tank based in Amherst, Massachusetts. IGLSS provides policy-oriented research on issues of importance to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities.