Wake up, Rick Santorum — We are everywhere!

“I’m certainly not going to have a federal law that bans adoption for gay couples when there are only gay couples in certain states.” — Former Sen. Rick Santorum at the Jan. 7 New Hampshire GOP presidential debate

Is Rick Santorum kidding? It’s not just annoying when politicians try to make us invisible – it’s absolutely not true. Sure, most of the ridiculous rhetoric from conservatives around lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their families usually makes us want to pull our hair out, but this “gem” from Saturday’s debate is 100% wrong. We know that LGBT people live in every single state and in nearly every county across the nation. It’s not wishful thinking – it’s fact.

That’s why the Task Force launched Queer the Census. To make sure that our community gets the resources it both deserves and needs. Services like money for community health centers that are funded using our tax dollars.

More than 140,000 people said “Count Me In!” by slapping a big pink sticker to the back of their census form in 2010. And we learned a lot in the first census that counted married same-sex couples, including that same-sex couples live in 99% of counties. Despite that fact, the federal government still doesn’t count all LGBT people. We can change all that – but only with your help.

Tell the government to Queer the Census (and all federal surveys) and get your “Count Me In!” sticker. The Task Force is hard at work making sure that you get the services you deserve by demanding that the government count everyone on surveys.

We’ve had a number of successes in the last few years. The Census Bureau agreed to count married same-sex couples in 2010. The Department of Labor gave us information on domestic partner benefits provided by employers and how parents in a same-sex couple are using family medical leave time. And in April 2011, the Department of Health and Human Services announced plans to develop LGBT questions for public health surveys.

Act now to help us fight back against myths like these. Let the government and Rick Santorum know that we’re here, we’re queer and we’re everywhere.