US Census to Count Married Gay Couples

US Census Bureau officials have said that the 2010 census will count married gay couples, despite previous statements that they would not be recognised.

Steve Jost, a spokesman for the Census Bureau, said the organisation was already working on technical changes to ensure valid information was given.

He told AP: "They will be counted, and they ought to report the way they see themselves.

"In the normal process of reports coming out after the census of 2010, I think the country will have a good data set on which to discuss this phenomenon that is evolving in this country."

The last US census was carried out in 2000, when gay couples could not marry in any state.

Since then, Vermont, Iowa, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Maine have legalised gay marriage although as yet, marriages have only taken place in Massachuesetts, Connecticut and Iowa.

Same-sex marriage was briefly allowed in California and the state's Supreme Court ruled last month that couples who married during the brief window can stay married.

Previously, the federal Defence of Marriage Act, signed in 1996 by President Bill Clinton, barred the information from being collected. However, the White House announced on Friday that its interpretation of the act did not prohibit gathering the information.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said: "The president and the administration are committed to a fair and accurate count of all Americans.

"We're in the midst of determining the best way to ensure that gay and lesbian couples are accurately counted."

It is thought that counting gay couples will not require a change in the census questions. However, officials say they will need to find out a way to separate those in civil unions who call themselves husbands or wives from those who are actually married or create a new designation for both.

2010 US Census Will Not Include Gays

The next US census, to be carried out next year, will not ask about sexual orientation or recognise gay marriages, civil unions and domestic partnerships.

If two men or two women who live together list themselves as husband and husband, or wife and wife, they will be counted as unmarried partners.

The federal Defence of Marriage Act, signed in 1996 by President Bill Clinton, does not recognise gay unions sanctioned by states.

US Census Bureau spokeswoman Cynthia Endo said: "This is all about the numbers. This not about lifestyle or anything else."

Sharon Raphael, a sociologist who lives with her partner Mina Meyer, told the Press-Telegram: "Certain numbers of us are not out, and when they hide us under these general descriptions … it just makes us more invisible."

"We should be treated the same. First of all, it's just not good science to leave us out for some dumb political reason."

Gary Gates, a demographer at the UCLA School of Law, said that federal law limits census questions to topics for which there is funding, such as income's influence on poverty funding.

There is not a federal funding category for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered, or LGBT, communities..

He added that the situation is a "classic catch-22″ because it is hard to properly assess needs of a group that has not been counted.Tracy Clark-Flory of Salon.com argued that including such information "could inject some potent political power into the lesbian, gay and transgender community".

She added that the results of the census are used by the federal government to make spending decisions on areas such as healthcare.

However, census questions cannot be changed without an act of Congress. As Congress must approve questions no later than two years in advance of the survey, it is too late to change the 2010 count.