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elizabearBoston Globe July 27, 2008
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/07/27/out_for_the_count/
Federal rules mean thousands of same-sex marriages in Massachusetts will be ignored in the 2010 US Census.
After nearly five years together, Pete Dziedzic and Jay Judas will marry in October at the Ritz-Carlton on Boston Common.
Although the ceremony will draw friends and family from across the country, and the marriage will be legally recognized by Massachusetts, it will be ignored by the US Census Bureau.
The agency plans to count Dziedzic and Judas - and the estimated 11,000 other gay and lesbian couples who have legally married in Massachusetts - as unwed partners in the 2010 Census. As a result, those couples will be excluded from all statistics about families and married couples issued by the Census Bureau.
...
Even as other federal benefits remain beyond their grasp, gay and lesbian married couples are demanding the right to be counted. They say it is both a matter of personal dignity and a desire to see the Census Bureau gather accurate information.
The census decision stems from the Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 federal law that keeps married gay couples in Massachusetts and elsewhere from receiving federal benefits afforded to heterosexual marriage, like the right to file taxes jointly or for an immigrant to receive a green card when marrying a citizen.
Same-sex marriage advocates say they can't understand why that law would extend to the census, because no immediate personal benefits flow from the government's count. Instead, the census exists - according to the agency's own mission statements - to provide the nation's leading source of data about population and the economy and to enable lawmakers and federal officials to make better policy decisions.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/07/27/out_for_the_count/
Federal rules mean thousands of same-sex marriages in Massachusetts will be ignored in the 2010 US Census.
After nearly five years together, Pete Dziedzic and Jay Judas will marry in October at the Ritz-Carlton on Boston Common.
Although the ceremony will draw friends and family from across the country, and the marriage will be legally recognized by Massachusetts, it will be ignored by the US Census Bureau.
The agency plans to count Dziedzic and Judas - and the estimated 11,000 other gay and lesbian couples who have legally married in Massachusetts - as unwed partners in the 2010 Census. As a result, those couples will be excluded from all statistics about families and married couples issued by the Census Bureau.
...
Even as other federal benefits remain beyond their grasp, gay and lesbian married couples are demanding the right to be counted. They say it is both a matter of personal dignity and a desire to see the Census Bureau gather accurate information.
The census decision stems from the Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 federal law that keeps married gay couples in Massachusetts and elsewhere from receiving federal benefits afforded to heterosexual marriage, like the right to file taxes jointly or for an immigrant to receive a green card when marrying a citizen.
Same-sex marriage advocates say they can't understand why that law would extend to the census, because no immediate personal benefits flow from the government's count. Instead, the census exists - according to the agency's own mission statements - to provide the nation's leading source of data about population and the economy and to enable lawmakers and federal officials to make better policy decisions.
