Jun 26, 2009  |  By: Lou Chibbaro Jr.  | COMMENTS     

The Obama administration is taking steps to direct the U.S. Census Bureau to include same-sex marriages, civil unions and domestic partnerships in the 2010 Census, according to White House officials.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, which was confirmed Friday by a White House spokesperson, the administration is seeking ways for next year’s Census to collect specific data on same-sex relationships and to report the data in early 2011.

Although the administration hasn’t finalized the details, White House officials told the Wall Street Journal that a decision has been made to reject a determination by the Bush administration that the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act prevents the Census Bureau from expending any resources to count and publish data about same-sex unions.

“The president is committed to a Census that produces a fair and accurate count of all Americans,” said White House spokesperson Shin Inouye. “The administration is determining the best ways to ensure that LGBT couples are accurately reflected in Census reports.”

News of the Obama administration’s plan to broaden the inclusion of same-sex couples in the Census came days after Obama signed a presidential memorandum providing limited employee benefits to same-sex partners of federal workers.

The Census changes proposed by the administration also follow repeated calls from members of Congress and LGBT advocacy organizations that the new administration allow the 2010 Census to accurately track the number of legally married same-sex couples.

Under the current policy established under the Bush administration, the Census Bureau would use a computer program to change the response by individuals who list themselves as married to someone of the same gender into an existing Census category of “unmarried partner.”

“There is nothing in the Defense of Marriage Act that prevents the United States government from gathering, counting or reporting its own data on LGBT people or same-sex couples or our families,” said Rae Carey, executive director of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, which has lobbied the government to change the policy.

The Census Bureau has enabled outside experts, including researchers for LGBT organizations, to count the number of same-sex couples in the United States since the 1990 Census, when the bureau added the “unmarried partner” category to the Census questionnaire.

Although the Census Bureau doesn’t refer specifically to same-sex couples in any of its published data from the 1990 Census, the “unmarried partner” category enables outside experts to calculate the number of same-sex couples by counting the number of households where two individuals of the same gender list their relationship as that of an “unmarried partner.”

No state or jurisdiction in the U.S. had legally recognized same-sex marriages in 1990, and Census officials never considered taking steps to distinguish between same-sex couples who are married versus those who are domestic partners and who consider themselves a couple without any legal or official status.

“The existing policy would have the U.S. Census Bureau manually un-marrying couples who lawfully answer the 2010 Census and check off, for example, a status of male-male and married,” Carey said. “It would turn them into an un-married partnership.”

Inouye said he could not say when the administration would announce specific details of the changes that would enable the Census to accurately count same-sex couples that are married.

Massachusetts, Iowa and Connecticut have legalized same-sex marriage. Vermont and Maine passed legislation legalizing same-sex marriage, with the legislation expected to go into effect this fall.