Rep. Quigley wants same-sex marriage in Census - Same-sex marriages: Census issue

Rep. Quigley wants same-sex marriage in Census - Same-sex marriages: Census issue
by Mark Silva
Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune
Posted June 16, 2009 11:15 AM
http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2009/06/samesex_marriages_census_issue.html


The Obama White House is facing no small amount of pressure from the gay and lesbian community to make good on campaign promises of ensuring equal rights - including repeal of that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell'' policy for the military.

While the president is taking his time on the sensitive matter of accommodating different lifestyles within the military, that is not the only issue on the table.

Chicago's Rep. Mike Quigley, who was elected in March to fill the vacant seat of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, is pressing the White House to include same-sex marriages in the Census count of the married and the single, the black and the white, the Hispanic and Asian, that will be conducted in 2010.

As growing yet still small numbers of states - Iowa and much of New England for now - accept same-sex couples for matrimony - Quigley and allies insist that the Census should count them all.

The concern is that the Census will see the federal Defense of Marriage Act as prohibiting agencies from tabulating and reporting data on same-sex marriages.

Quigley and others had called on the White House in May to ensure that a full "portrait of America'' is made next year, and Quigley wrote another letter to Obama today.

"This recognition of same-sex married couples will ensure the collection of proper and accurate data, so that the integrity of the Census is not jeopardized, which I fear will happen if this information is omitted,'' the congressman writes today.

"My colleagues and I do not believe that simply reporting data about same-sex married couples in the 2010 Census is a recognition of same-sex marriage. However, the omission, or "scrubbing" of the data from these couples will misidentify and misrepresent many people who are legally married in a growing number of states across our country. Since the Census is a portrait of America, information about legally married, same-sex couples should not be "scrubbed" from the record.''

Quigley, a member of the LGBT Congressional Equality Caucus and a former longtime Cook County commissioner who worked to ensure that the county did not discriminate based on sexual orientation also has called for repeal of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. Advisers have advised Obama to move cautiously in any revision.