Every decade, the U.S. Census misses or undercounts hundreds of thousands of marginalized people, including low-income people, people of color, and very young children. At the same time, the Census overcounts (usually substantially) people with the most privilege, including the white population, homeowners, and wealthier people.
In essence, this skewed data continues to reinforce systems of power and oppression in this country, which is why the Task Force works with colleagues in the LGBTQ and social justice movements to ensure that all of us, and especially people from marginalized communities, are represented accurately in Census data.
As a result of our leadership on the Census Bureau’s National Advisory Council, coupled with our work with LGBTQ and allied organizations during our movement-building and training phases, we launched our robust Get Out the Count Campaign. Our organizing activities focused on hard-to-count communities that all too often tend to be disengaged from the overall democratic process. Our target communities included people who identify as LGBTQ, people experiencing economic disenfranchisement, and formally incarcerated people. For example, we maintained a steady stream of information and engagement opportunities, gathered personal stories of why the 2020 Census mattered so much, and galvanized the community through a network of mobile events.
In advance of the 2030 Census, we will continue to partner with the U.S. Census Bureau to ensure that the LGBTQ community and other marginalized Americans are counted—which as we know has tremendous implications for reapportionment (i.e., the number of seats that each state has in Congress) and redistricting processes.