美国国家公共电台 NPR 2020 Census Will Ask About Same-Sex Relationships

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

So the federal government has revealed the questions for the 2020 census¹. And for the first time, couples living together will be asked whether they are in a same-sex or opposite-sex relationship. NPR's Hansi Lo Wang reports on what this change means for the LGBT community.

HANSI LO WANG, BYLINE²: Since 1880, the U.S. census has asked about how people living together are related. But it never had a checkbox that could fully³ define one of the most important relationships in Wendy Becker's (ph) life.

WENDY BECKER: I got married to Mary Norton (ph) in 2006.

WANG: And before they tied the knot, Becker remembers having to choose boxes on forms that could never quite describe their long-time relationship, like once in a hospital where a woman asked her...

BECKER: Married, single, divorced, widow? And I said, I understand what the categories mean. But I've been with my partner for 15 years, and none of this fits me. And I remember being so upset when she checked single.

WANG: Becker says that's why she's excited to be part of the practice run of a 2020 census that's taking place right now in Rhode Island's Providence⁴ County. People living there, like Becker, can choose from new relationship categories the rest of the country will see in two years, including same-sex husband or wife or spouse⁵ and same-sex unmarried partner.

BECKER: It really normalizes our experience on an American government form so that everybody looking at it and everybody filling it out sees that we exist.

GARY GATES: Groups often don't count until they are counted.

WANG: This is Gary Gates.

GATES: Formerly⁶ the research director at the Williams Institute at UCLA.

WANG: And a consultant⁷ for the Census Bureau on collecting data about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. He says the bureau has tried to count how many same-sex couples live in the U.S. before. It's put out numbers from 2000 and 2010 after matching up responses about a person's sex and relationship. But Gates says sometimes people accidentally checked off the wrong box for their sex.

GATES: Even if only a few different-sex couples make an error where they appear to be same-sex couples, it's a large enough problem that it, for lack of a better word, contaminates the same-gender⁸ couples sample.

WANG: That's why Gates says to get a more accurate count in 2020, the bureau decided¹⁰ to spell out categories for same-sex and opposite-sex relationships. But whatever the tally⁹ ends up being in 2020, it may not include Ronald Lewis (ph).

RONALD LEWIS: Correct. I'm not in a relationship unless something changes before I, like, fill out the form - yeah.

WANG: Lewis lives in Providence, R.I., and is openly gay.

LEWIS: I personally would be comfortable giving that information out.

WANG: But on the 2020 census form, there won't be a place for Lewis and other single LGBT people to indicate their sexual orientation¹¹. That means for now, there are no reliable national data about how many LGBT people live in the U.S. that can inform public policy.

LEWIS: If this is about how resources are spent or given to communities - and we are talking about the LGBTQ community, not everyone is married or in a relationship.

WANG: And Cecilia Chung says not everyone identifies as male or female.

CECILIA CHUNG: I am the senior director of strategic projects at Transgender Law Center.

WANG: And back in 2010, Chung says she mailed back her census form with a sticker attached.

CHUNG: It's pink. And it has a couple of boxes. One box is asking sexual orientation. And the other box is asking gender identity.

WANG: And those are the questions, Chung says, she hopes to see on a future census form with categories that reflect a wider range of identities.

CHUNG: If we don't have the proper labels when we try to look at the picture, there will be a lot of missing pieces, like jigsaw¹² puzzles.

WANG: In 2020, Chung says, even with same-sex couples recognized on the census, there'll be a lot of other people in the LGBT community missing from the picture of America. Hansi Lo Wang, NPR News, New York.

(SOUNDBITE OF TYCHO'S "EPOCH")

1 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

4 providence   

n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝

参考例句：

• It is tempting Providence to go in that old boat.乘那艘旧船前往是冒大险。
• To act as you have done is to fly in the face of Providence.照你的所作所为那样去行事，是违背上帝的意志的。

5 spouse   

n.配偶(指夫或妻)

参考例句：

• Her spouse will come to see her on Sunday.她的丈夫星期天要来看她。
• What is the best way to keep your spouse happy in the marriage?在婚姻中保持配偶幸福的最好方法是什么？

6 formerly   

adv.从前，以前

参考例句：

• We now enjoy these comforts of which formerly we had only heard.我们现在享受到了过去只是听说过的那些舒适条件。
• This boat was formerly used on the rivers of China.这船从前航行在中国内河里。

7 consultant   

n.顾问；会诊医师，专科医生

参考例句：

• He is a consultant on law affairs to the mayor.他是市长的一个法律顾问。
• Originally,Gar had agreed to come up as a consultant.原来，加尔只答应来充当我们的顾问。

8 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

9 tally   

n.计数器，记分，一致，测量；vt.计算，记录，使一致；vi.计算，记分，一致

参考例句：

• Don't forget to keep a careful tally of what you spend.别忘了仔细记下你的开支账目。
• The facts mentioned in the report tally to every detail.报告中所提到的事实都丝毫不差。

10 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

11 orientation   

n.方向，目标；熟悉，适应，情况介绍

参考例句：

• Children need some orientation when they go to school.小孩子上学时需要适应。
• The traveller found his orientation with the aid of a good map.旅行者借助一幅好地图得知自己的方向。

12 jigsaw   

n.缕花锯，竖锯，拼图游戏；vt.用竖锯锯，使互相交错搭接

参考例句：

• A jigsaw puzzle can keep me absorbed for hours.一副拼图就能让我沉醉几个小时。
• Tom likes to work on jigsaw puzzles,too.汤姆也喜欢玩拼图游戏。