Queer the Census

[Butterfly]

Queer the Census
Pam's House Blend
by:  Lurleen
Tue Mar 09, 2010 at 08:00:00 AM EST


http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/15459/queer-the-census


I work a lot with census data, and often grapple with all the histories of injustice embodied in the questions the census form asks and the way data is collected. "Queer the census" to me would mean doing something to subvert those categories -- getting rid of the M/F binary gender question, or actually figuring out a way to compile data about folks who identify as multi-racial that doesn't just lump everyone together as "black, more than one race".

What does this initiative do? Something extraordinarily un-queer -- try to get the US Government to rigidly categorize citizens by sexual identity, as if "lesbian","gay","bisexual","transgender" were God-given rigidly defined categories.