U.S. Census Bureau’s First-Ever Data on LGBTQ People Indicates Disparities

Following this year’s U.S. Census Bureau survey of the pandemic over the summer—the first time a national government survey was conducted with the additions of sexual orientation and gender identity to capture the LGBTQ economic experience—the preliminary results indicate that the disparities queer Americans experienced prior to the pandemic have continued 18 months later. For some, it’s gotten worse.

When the U.S. Census Bureau began asking Americans about their sexual orientation and gender identity in July, it was a breakthrough moment that marked the first time the federal government would attempt to capture data on LGBTQ Americans in its real-time, national surveys.

The data—breaking down the census’ Household Pulse Survey that measured how Americans are faring on key economic markers through the pandemic—captures results from July 21 to September 13 and reports that LGBTQ reported being more likely than non-LGBTQ people to have lost employment, not have enough to eat, be at elevated risk of eviction or foreclosure, and face difficulty paying for basic household expenses.

Prior to this data, no large government population surveys have attempted to capture the real-time economic experiences of LGBTQ people. The census tried to analyze the amounts of “same-sex couples” in 1990 with limited success, and even so, that language leaves out a significant portion of LGBTQ people. Advocates also note that the lack of accurate data on the LGBTQ population as a whole has contributed to the lack of federal response to persisting inequities.

“Having this on (the Pulse survey), both as a way to understand what’s going on during the pandemic, but also hopefully as a starting point to more federal data collection, is really an important moment,” says Bianca D.M. Wilson, the senior scholar of public policy at the Williams Institute.

The data is preliminary, and while it’s still too early to tell whether the observed differences are representative of the LGBTQ population overall or just those who were surveyed by the census during that time, the trends emerging in the data are consistent with what other surveys have found prior to the pandemic, a structural result of employment discrimination, underpay, discriminatory lending practices, and other policies that limit economic mobility for queer people.

The 19th analysis of the first four releases from the census survey show as much as 23 percent on LGBTQ people and 32 percent of trans people reported losing employment in the month before the census conducted the questionnaire. In comparison, about 15 to 16 percent of non-LGBTQ people reported the same. About 12 percent of LGBTQ people said they sometimes or often didn’t have enough to eat, and that figure was between 6 and 7 percent for non-LGBTQ people. For trans Americans, it was as high as 24 percent.

It is still not yet clear how accurate the data for trans Americans is, because the sample sizes are smaller. In general, all of the information will be easier to draw larger conclusions from months down the line. The Census Bureau didn’t comment on the LGBTQ data, saying “subject experts felt that there’s not enough information available for them to be able to speak on the record about,” though it did publish a report on the first set of LGBTQ data this summer, which found that LGBTQ people are more likely than non-LGBTQ people to face economic hardship.

Another finding was that housing insecurity was prevalent across all groups, with more than 40 percent of people, LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ, saying they were very or somewhat likely to face eviction by the end of September or October.

While this data would help to impact policies in real time, one issue in regard to pandemic-related policies is that data might be coming too late.

“It’s 18 months into the pandemic, and had that been the starting place, we would not be looking at a sample size that would create problems for all the analyses that we want to do to understand a trans-specific experience,” Wilson says.