For gay couples, a fair accounting

Information is power, as they say. For gay and lesbian couples, the official U.S. Census now underway may just offer the kind of information needed to generate enough political power to end the charade that keeps them from getting married under civil law.

The Census, “for the first time,” will give same-sex couples “the opportunity to call their union a marriage in an official government document.”

In a policy shift experts say could radically reshape demographic profiles of the gay community, the U.S. Census this year will let same-sex couples label themselves as husband or wife even if their relationships are not recognized by law.

The move could have wide-ranging policy implications, as Gary Gates, a demographer with the University of California, Los Angeles,  said in today’s Star-Ledger. It could “offer a rich source of data about how same-sex couples describe themselves, as well as their family structure.”

And that should change the debate from one based on misinformation and innuendo to one based on fact.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.
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Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.

3 thoughts on “For gay couples, a fair accounting”

  2. It should go without saying that a person should be allowed to marry whomever they choose. Until the right-wing, religious fanatics in this country stop trying to control everybody else and force their “morals” down the throat of the country, there can be no real freedom in the United States. Civil rights cannot simply be \”voted away,\” that is the purpose of the Bill of Rights. Religious activists should be left out of these decisions completely. I invite you to my web pages devoted to raising awareness on this puritan attack on our freedom: http://freethegods.blogspot.com/2009/06/san-franciscos-gay-pride-parade.html

    Reply

  3. It should go without saying that a person should be allowed to marry whomever they choose. Until the right-wing, religious fanatics in this country stop trying to control everybody else and force their “morals” down the throat of the country, there can be no real freedom in the United States. Civil rights cannot simply be \”voted away,\” that is the purpose of the Bill of Rights. Religious activists should be left out of these decisions completely. I invite you to my web pages devoted to raising awareness on this puritan attack on our freedom: http://freethegods.blogspot.com/2009/06/san-franciscos-gay-pride-parade.html

    Reply

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