What This Brouhaha Is About.

You would think we are taking over the world, you would think we are a pink wave taking over the “straights” but…

What the 2020 census can — and can't — tell us about LGBTQ people

NPR

By Hansi Lo Wang, Connie Hanzhang Jin

May 25, 2023

States along the West Coast and in the Northeast have the highest shares of households with same-sex couples, according to the latest 2020 census results released Thursday.

The new numbers from the Census Bureau make up the most comprehensive statistics the federal government has produced to date about married and unmarried same-sex couples living together.

The big surprise is Florida with the tenth largest same-sex couples! Florida married same-sex couples account for 0.7% and unmarried couples 0.5% is what the hubbub is over!

We only have the data on same-sex couples because Trump.

Former President Donald Trump's administration blocked efforts to get questions about sexual orientation and gender identity onto a Census Bureau survey that's considered a testing ground for changes to the forms for the decennial national head count.

Now, the Biden administration has renewed that process as advocates for more official statistics about LGBTQ populations continue to grapple with long-standing data gaps that make it difficult to fully understand people's needs amid rising anti-LGBTQ sentiment from right-wing groups.

Republicans don’t want data about us because it might undermine their pogrom against us.

For Josie Caballero, the lack of an opportunity to identify as a trans woman on the 2020 census was disappointing.

"If we're not asking the question, if you're trans or not, in these surveys, it is impossible for us to actually identify those disparities and make sure that funds and resources go to the communities that are desperately in need," adds Caballero, who is the director of the U.S. Trans Survey and special projects for the National Center for Transgender Equality.

When we were trying to pass the gender inclusive non-discrimination law one of the questions that te legislators asked was… “How many trans people are there in Connecticut?” and we had to shrug our shoulders in not knowing. And we were hoping for the 2020 Census to answer that, but the Republicans didn’t want us counted.

Late last year, the Justice Department sent a formal request to the Census Bureau for questions about sexual orientation and gender identity to be added to the bureau's American Community Survey, according to a recently released working paper by a bureau official.

"The request included citations of several statutes to justify the collection, including a need for data to properly enforce discrimination laws," wrote Andrew Roberts, the chief of the agency's sex and age statistics branch. Roberts also referenced a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that confirmed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects workers against discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

The right-wing pushes back… “How dare you ask that question of me!!!!”

But the rise of anti-LGBTQ legislation and sentiment among right-wing politicians and other groups has underlined concerns about how census data can be misused and individuals can be reidentified in anonymized statistics, a risk the bureau has been trying to address through a new, controversial privacy protection system.

[…]

"I think that people being given an opportunity to volunteer that information is important," says Rebecca Moon, president of the Shoals Diversity Center, a nonprofit organization based in Florence, Ala., that offers mental health support for the LGBTQ community and supports increasing government data collection. "Not everyone is out, especially in the South. There's a lot of LGBTQ hatred."

Privacy is a two-way street. Many LGBTQ+ are afraid to come out in this day of the Proud Boys brownshirts.

"You can't argue with the fact that hundreds of thousands of trans folks have been able to say in a quantitative, scientific way that we exist and this is what it looks like to live here," Caballero says. "And if we did not have that data, it would be extremely difficult to prove that we deserve human rights."

That was the trouble we faced and that is why the Republicans don’t want us counted.

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Yesterday I wrote about Pride being canceled down in Florida and I wrote that a few are standing up against the laws, well…

Florida laws targeting LGBT community stoke Pride energy, organizers say

Reuters

By Brad Brooks and Daniel Trotta

May 25, 2023

Organizers of some LGBT Pride events in Florida are limiting access by minors and increasing security in the face of a slate of new state laws they say unfairly target their community.

But the organizers say the laws are rekindling a defiant energy they hope will help push back against Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican who announced his candidacy for the U.S. presidency on Wednesday, and other conservative leaders.

"The most important message of this year's Pride is that we all show unity and family and togetherness," said Jeff Sterling, organizer of Stonewall Pride in Wilton Manors, which is asking performers and parade goers to avoid nudity or risqué behavior.

[…]

Critics say the law on drag shows was unneeded, arguing that the state already had laws against exposing children to lewd entertainment. They argue that it was specifically built to target Pride, by banning local governments from issuing permits to any event that might expose children to a lewd "adult live performance."

"We are telling people not to run, not to hide. That's what the bigots want," said Carlos Guillermo Smith, with the LGBT advocacy group Equality Florida and a former Democratic state representative who is running for state senate.

I have no doubt that these laws will eventually be overturned.

"When people come to Pride events, that unity and coming together creates a layer of security for our community and it shows that we're here and we're not going anywhere," Clark said.