Just Like The 1930s

Did you know that in Germany in the 1930s they had a box to check off that said "Jew"? Now the Trump administration will have a box to check off... "Trans!"

A double-edged sword!

Back around 2010, when we were trying to pass the gender-inclusive non-discrimination bill and we replied that we had no idea of the number of trans people in Connecticut, we thought that lack of data was a bad thing. But now, that may seem like a good thing. Why? Because someone like Trump could misuse the data.

Trump admin’s proposed US Census rules could mean ‘forced outing’ for trans Americans

The Trump administration is proposing sweeping changes to the rules governing the 2030 US Census, including a requirement that could make questions about biological sex mandatory for respondents, a change critics say could effectively force transgender people to disclose their trans status to the federal government.

The Pink News

by Sian Thompson

Sept 17, 2026

The proposal, published by the Census Bureau on September 10, would prohibit questions about race, ethnicity and sexual orientation from appearing on the short-form decennial census. At the same time, it would allow questions about biological sex, date of birth and household relationships to be included for the purpose of verifying the population count. The proposed rule is part of a much broader overhaul of the decennial census.

News outlet The Needle argued the practical impact would leave trans people with limited options: disclose sex assigned at birth, lie, or refuse to take part. It wrote: “By requiring trans people to identify themselves by their sex assigned at birth, and with a looming threat of prosecution for noncompliance, the Trump Administration is compelling every trans person to out themselves to the Federal Government.”

The Needle also claimed: “This is an attempt to weaponise the Census to make a list of every trans person in the United States.”

Leave it to Trump to make the census racist! I don't know about you, but I will go with what is on my birth certificate. But we are not the only ones Trump is attacking!

Democrats say citizenship question could derail census test and deter immigrants from participating

AP News

By  MIKE SCHNEIDER

February 19, 2026

U.S. Census Bureau plans to use a questionnaire with a citizenship question as part of its practice test for the 2030 census could jeopardize the once-a-decade head count and scare away immigrants from participating, congressional Democrats warned Thursday.

Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform urged the Census Bureau to drop plans to use the American Community Survey form, which includes the citizenship question, and instead use a traditional census questionnaire that omits it. The on-the-ground tests in Huntsville, Alabama, and Spartanburg, S.C., start next month.

“The Trump Administration is risking millions of taxpayer dollars to pursue policies which could fatally compromise the 2030 count before it even begins,” they wrote in a letter to acting Census Bureau Director George Cook and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, whose department oversees the statistical agency.

Okay, the Constitution says a census shall "be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons..." and "...within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct." Nowhere does it say only "citizens" shall be counted. But the Republicans are trying to weave their transphobia and xenophobia into the count. NPR from last year wrote;

A Trump administration official on Friday signaled a potential rollback of the racial and ethnic categories approved for the 2030 census and other future federal government forms.

Supporters of those categories fear that any last-minute modifications to the U.S. government's standards for data about race and ethnicity could hurt the accuracy of census data and other future statistics used for redrawing voting districts, enforcing civil rights protections and guiding policymaking.

Legislators run on data. How many (they want to know the voting block this will affect... vote both for and against), how much, etc.

The "Project 2025" policy agenda released by The Heritage Foundation, the conservative, D.C.-based think tank, called for a Republican administration to "thoroughly review any changes" to census race and ethnicity questions because of "concerns among conservatives that the data under Biden Administration proposals could be skewed to bolster progressive political agendas."

"...could be skewed to bolster progressive political agendas." Um... like, yeah, we will actually see the size of the minority populations. But if the questions are asked, will it raise the fear in minority populations of being tracked, like in Germany in the 1930s?

You see... "How many?" Without being counted, we will never know. But if it is asked, minorities might not be counted. Either way, the Republicans win.