How are gay men and lesbians counted in Census 2000?
Since the U.S. Census Bureau asks no questions about sexual orientation or behavior, how do researchers identify gay men and lesbians? The Census form does ask about relationships between individuals in the household, including husband/wife, son/daughter, brother/sister, and so on. For the first time in 1990, the Census Bureau also added an “unmarried partner” category. If the person filling out the census form designates another adult of the same sex as his or her unmarried partner, the couple is counted as a same-sex unmarried partner household. Research strongly indicates that the same-sex unmarried pair identified by the census are, in fact, gay and lesbian couples. The way data is edited once it’s collected changed in Census 2000 too. In 1990, when another adult of the same sex as the householder was identified as a “husband/wife,” the couple was counted as a heterosexual married couple. In 2000, the “husband/wife” was counted as an “unmarried partner.” Counting these same-sex mar
