DOJ Ends LGBTQ Census Inclusion

Once again the Trump administration continues its agenda to erase our LGBTQ community from the 2020 Census. In response to the new FOIA release on Department of Justice influence on the Census Meghan Maury, Policy Director at the National LGBTQ Task Force stated, "The Census should count LGBTQ people because we count. New information uncovered about the Trump administration confirms that the Department of Justice chose to halt the Census Bureau’s progress toward adding sexual orientation & gender identity questions to the Census. The Census controls billions of dollars in federal funding, determines our representation at the state & federal levels & impacts scores of other programs like how our school districts are drawn. The addition of sexual orientation & gender identity questions would have had a significant impact on our community’s access to services, democracy & education, which is why we demand to be counted. The Civil Rights Division must reverse this course & ensure fair & impartial administration of justice for all Americans. The Trump administration appointed John Gore (the attorney who helped defend North Carolina in a federal lawsuit against HB2) to head the Civil Rights Division in 2017. Unfortunately, under the leadership of a champion of anti-LGBTQ legislation, the Division made a decision that betrayed the needs of our community. On March 7, 2017, the Department of Justice told the Census Bureau it needed time to carefully consider inclusion of sexual orientation & gender identity questions on the long-form Census, also known as the American Community Survey (ACS). A year after that date, we call on the Department to reaffirm its request of November 4, 2016 to include these topics on the ACS. The Trump administration appears to be hell bent on erasing LGBTQ people, but the reality is we are a significant part of the population. We’re here, we’re queer, we’re not going anywhere. We deserve to be counted in the Census."
For More Info: thetaskforce.org
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