In a departure from the Bush administrations policies, the 2010 US Census, under pressure from Barack Obama will report the status of same-sex couples, sort of.
The Bush administration had said that the Defense of Marriage Act prevented them from reporting the status of same-sex couples in the 2000 census.
Nine years and one historic election later, those clever folks in the Obama Administration have found a way to dole out another feel-good morsel to the gay community while not actually having to do anything.
During the initial phases of the census report next year, Gay and lesbian couples who are legally married in states where it is allowed, will have their marital status "recoded" to say "unmarried couple". Then, in late 2011, when most of America has forgotten that there even was a census in 2010, the government will release the "raw data".
The 2011 report will show the answers you actually gave to the census taker that you invited into your home. The home you pay taxes on. The home you and your spouse have worked hard to make a life together in. The home you raise, or hope to raise, your family in. You know, the one where you answered truthfully about your marital status in the first place?
So let's recap.
During the worst economic crisis in 80 years, the Obama Administration is spending millions of dollars to pay for software and government geeks that will change the truthful answers that married gay couples give to census takers to a more acceptable but dishonest answer, only to go back a year later and release your real answers after the reporting process is over, in order to comply with a law that the president has promised to over-turn.
Why are gay rights activists celebrating this?
