Happy Pride Month, everyone! In June our nation celebrates the accomplishments and resilience of our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) community. To further that celebration, I want to talk about how we at the U.S. Census Bureau are expanding our knowledge on measuring sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI).

The LGBTQIA+ population is a growing and a beautifully diversifying part of our American landscape. Now, the Census Bureau’s mission is to provide quality information about our nation’s people and families. This necessarily includes our LGBTQIA+ population, which is found across all demographic, social, and economic groups in the United States.

In all our Census Bureau demographic surveys, as well as the decennial census, we collect information about the relationship of each person in a household to one central person. These data reveal same-sex couple households, i.e., households containing a same-sex married or unmarried partner of the householder. According to the 2022 American Community Survey (ACS) 1-year estimates, there were about 1.3 million same-sex couple households in the United States. Roughly 741,000 (or 57 percent) were married, while 537,000 were unmarried. To add to this diversity, about 31 percent of married same-sex couples were interracial in 2022. This is much higher (by over one-half) than the 19 percent of married opposite-sex couples that were interracial.

Another way that we’ve gleaned information is through our Household Pulse Survey (HPS). This survey is  experimental and provides near real-time data about the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on the American public. HPS data show that sexual and gender minorities have differential access to health and mental health care, as well as different economic and educational experiences.

For example, 31.1 percent of overall HPS respondents ages 18 and over reported long-lasting COVID-19 symptoms. But respondents who identified their gender as “Transgender” or as “None of these” listed genders were far more likely to suffer from long COVID (48.5 and 45.1, respectively). Mental health struggles are more prevalent among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) adults than non-LGBT adults in all age groups. Younger respondents, whether they are LGBT or not, struggled more with both anxiety and depression symptoms, but younger LGBT respondents struggled the most.

The Census Bureau is always looking to better reflect our nation’s people in our censuses and surveys.  When measuring small population groups, we must take special care to provide quality data while also ensuring confidentiality. We also work with our partner agencies within the federal statistical system to learn from each other about how best to measure SOGI. And we also engage a wide range of stakeholders, data users, the public, and the international statistical community on such measurement issues.

Right now, the Census Bureau is seeking approval to conduct the 2024 ACS Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Test. Other federal agencies have identified uses for SOGI information, such as for civil rights and equal employment enforcement. Collecting these data in the ACS would give us insights that have not been available from smaller surveys. Plus, the test gives us the opportunity to address existing SOGI research gaps.

One pressing issue is examining proxy reporting of SOGI information within a household. In federal surveys, including the ACS, it is common for one person—a “proxy”—to respond for themselves as well as on behalf of the other household members. Research is needed to understand if and when proxy reporting generates accurate SOGI responses. For example, we seek knowledge about the extent to which respondents know SOGI about others in the household and are comfortable sharing it. While research is limited, cognitive testing for the Current Population Survey shows that the majority of respondents did not have difficulty answering SOGI questions for either themselves or for other people in the household. But these results are not generalizable. Thus, an ACS test will add insights through the combination of cognitive testing and field testing using a random sample.

Research is also currently underway on the American Housing Survey (AHS) to expand our understanding of proxy reporting. The Census Bureau conducts the AHS, one of our nation’s most comprehensive national housing surveys, for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. In 2023, the AHS asked SOGI questions of adult respondents in regular, occupied housing units; one-half of the sample included experimental proxy questions for all members of the household along with the self-response questions. This research will help us understand how LGBT households compare to non-LGBT households on things like housing characteristics, housing costs, and housing quality, among others. It will also tell us about differences or similarities in trends between respondent and proxy data.

But proxy reporting isn’t the only aspect of SOGI data collection that we’re researching. The ACS test will also help inform research on the use of a “mark all that apply” option when reporting gender identity. The results will help inform whether to offer a multiple-choice option for gender and to gain insights into how this approach impacts gender data.

The Census Bureau conducts over 100 surveys for other federal agencies; some also include SOGI measures. Since 2016, the National Crime Victimization Survey, conducted for the Bureau of Justice Statistics, has measured the intersection of being a crime victim with sexual orientation and gender identity. For the Department of Health and Human Services’ Maternal and Child Health Bureau, we conduct the National Survey of Children’s Health, which since 2020 has asked if a child has been treated or judged unfairly because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Since 2013, the National Health Interview Survey, conducted for the National Center for Health Statistics, has examined how sexual orientation, health status, and access to health care intersect—and beginning in 2022, it has included experimental questions to examine alternate approaches for measuring gender identity.

Our collection of important and varied work on SOGI spans many areas at the Census Bureau. I encourage you to check out our new Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity landing page on census.gov, which contains our research and data in this area, as well as our SOGI Data Action Plan. We look forward to sharing the results of our current and ongoing research with the public, our stakeholders, and the international statistical community.