United States to Count Same-Sex Couples in 2020 Census Last month, the U.S. Census Bureau submitted its planned questions for the 2020 census, which included some new ones like asking respondents if they are part of a same-sex couple. To better collect more detailed data about types of coupled households, the Census Bureau expanded the single response option of ‘husband or wife’ or ‘unmarried partner’... ...to the two response options of ‘opposite-sex husband/wife/spouse’ and ‘same-sex husband/wife/spouse,’ and ‘opposite-sex unmarried partner’ and ‘same-sex unmarried partner.’ Many LGBTQ rights activists feel this is a step in the right direction, even if the census won’t directly ask respondents about their LGBTQ status. Americans will get the chance to fill out the census on April 1, 2020, and the results will be available to the public in December 2021.
