Just as President Donald Trump was preparing to deliver his address before a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, news broke that his Republican administration had disbanded several advisory panels to the U.S. Census Bureau. It raised alarms about plans for the 2030 decennial count of the nation's population, and threw into doubt seeing questions about sexual orientation and gender identity be added to various census forms.
Trump's election last year had already quashed hopes of seeing the 2030 census form ask the SOGI questions. During his first term, Trump had upended efforts to see the 2020 census gather data about LGBTQ Americans.
And ever since being sworn into a second term in January, Trump has repeatedly moved to end rights for transgender individuals and declared his White House will end "gender ideology." An executive order he signed January 20 shortly after taking his oath of office titled "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government" stated that the term "sex" refers "to an individual's immutable biological classification as either male or female" and was not synonymous with "gender identity."
He reiterated that stance in his nearly 100-minute-long March 4 speech to U.S. senators and members of the House of Representatives.
"We have removed the poison of critical race theory from our public schools, and they signed an order making it the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female," said Trump.
Hours prior to his address various advocacy groups had denounced the decision by Trump's Department of Commerce to terminate the census bureau's three advisory committees: the 2030 Census Advisory Committee; the Census Scientific Advisory Committee; and the National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic, and Other Populations. The members all received notices Tuesday saying Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, whose agency oversees the census bureau, had determined the committees' purposes "have been fulfilled," the Associated Press reported.
Nearly a year ago, LGBTQ data collection expert Nancy Bates had been appointed to the panel advising on the decennial count of the country's population and was tapped to serve as its vice chair. Bates, a lesbian who is a former senior methodologist and statistician with the census bureau, had told the Bay Area Reporter at the time that she planned to advocate for the 2030 census to include the SOGI questions in order to determine how many people living in the U.S. identify as LGBTQ.
"Disbanding the 2030 CAC is simply another example of the Trump administration's attempts to silence expert voices and setback the accuracy of the 2030 Census," wrote Bates, who is based in Washington, D.C., in an emailed reply to the B.A.R.
As for seeing the SOGI questions appear on the 2030 census forms, Bates acknowledged that had no longer been likely even before her advisory panel was dissolved. But she expressed hope of seeing other census questionnaires ask about sexual orientation.
As the B.A.R. reported last year, the census bureau had tested asking the SOGI questions on its American Community Survey, which is sent monthly to 295,000 households in the U.S. and Puerto Rico and provides ongoing, detailed housing and socioeconomic data about American families. The SOGI question test was to wrap up at the end of 2024, with the federal agency expecting to report out the results "roughly 18 months later," a spokesperson for the federal agency had said last summer.
Due to Trump's attacks on the transgender community, Bates told the B.A.R. she doesn't expect to see a gender identity question be added to any census forms in the foreseeable future. But she did hold out hope about the sexual orientation question being added to the ACS.
"Neither sexual orientation nor gender identity measures were likely to make their way onto the 2030 Census. However, before the EO by Trump, these two Qs WERE likely to be added to the American Community Survey," wrote Bates. "I am hopeful that sexual orientation will still be added to the ACS, but the measurement of Gender Identity now seems extremely doubtful."
A spokesperson for the census bureau has yet to respond to the B.A.R.'s inquiry into the status of the results from the SOGI test on the ACS last year and if any decisions have made about adding such questions to the monthly questionnaires.
The move by the Commerce Department comes after Robert Santos, who served as the census bureau director in the Biden administration, resigned in January. The federal agency's deputy director and chief operating officer, Ron S. Jarmin, Ph.D., is serving as the acting director, a position he previously had served in from January 2021 to January 2022.
SEARAC, the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center that has extensive ties to the Bay Area and works with more than 30 Southeast Asian American (SEAA) community-based organizations across California, condemned the dismantling of the census advisory bodies. Executive Director, Quyên Đinh, who grew up in San Jose and Orange County in Southern California, had also been appointed to the committee advising on the 2030 Census.
"Census data are essential to highlight the experiences of SEAAs to community-based organizations, researchers, and policymakers. These data allow us to understand the differences among our communities and the gaps in resourcing, socioeconomic disparities, and barriers to social and economic mobility," she stated. "We are disappointed that community-informed practices and accurate and reliable data will not be a priority of this administration. SEARAC will continue to fight for good data that allow our stories to be seen and heard."
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights also denounced the disbandment of the census advisory bodies. It disagreed with the determination that the panel members had completed their work, which it pointed out is particularly important in ensuring "persistently underrepresented" groups in census data participate in the counts conducted every 10 years. LGBTQs and people of color have historically not been fully counted by the decennial census.
"A fair and accurate census is foundational to our democracy. We rely on the census bureau to provide data that underpin our representation, resource allocation, policymaking decisions, and civil rights enforcement. By jettisoning the valuable information, expertise, and on-the-ground knowledge provided by the advisory committees, the Secretary of Commerce is jeopardizing the Census Bureau's ability to count all people in the United States," stated Meeta Anand, the organization's senior director of the census and data equity program. "This will lead to distorted data and skewed outcomes affecting everything from resources for schools to the drawing of congressional districts. We decry this decision as the input of these committee members is necessary to help remedy historic and persistent undercounts, as well as rural and digital divides, and ensure that all communities are reflected in our public data."
In a statement the conference jointly released with Asian Americans Advancing Justice and the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund, it noted that 2025 marks the halfway point to the 2030 Census and the termination of the advisory committees deprives the census bureau of expert input just as it enters a critical planning phase that could negatively impact the quality of census data "for years to come."
Having accurate census data, the groups noted, is "critical to ensuring that our communities receive their fair share of federal resources, including funding for critical infrastructure and services like health care and education. Census data are also necessary to ensure equal political representation and to uphold the civil rights of everyone residing in the United States."
Terry Ao Minnis, the AAJC's vice president of census and voting programs, had also been named to the 2030 Census Advisory Committee. She credited the advisory body, along with the other two, for empowering members of the public to participate in the census count.
"Eliminating them halts the input from stakeholders from varied disciplines on the research, innovations and strategies at a critical moment in the decade when important decisions will be made on how the 2030 Census is taken," argued Minnis. "We disagree with the Department of Commerce's reasoning that the advisory committees have served their purpose – in fact, we know that there is still more work to be done to ensure a fair and accurate census."
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