Engaging Diverse Voices through Research & Resources

There is no way to indicate either sexual orientation or nuanced gender identity on the U.S. Census, making data on the U.S. LGBTQ+ population both difficult to locate and incomplete at best.

Gender has been included as a question on the U.S. Census since its inception, but the only options provided are “male” and “female.” This forces nonbinary people to choose between either misgendering themselves or not being counted in the Census at all, and it also fails to represent trans people who may identify within the binary but still constitute part of the LGBTQ+ community. 

In terms of sexual orientation, as of 2020 the Census does allow people to indicate whether or not they are part of a same-sex marriage or civil union. However, this is not the same thing as sexual orientation, and this approach leaves out large swathes of the LGBTQ+ population who are not in long-term monogamous partnerships, or who identify as LGBTQ+ and are in straight-appearing relationships. All of these groups are valid members of the LGBTQ+ community, and deserve to be counted as such if they so choose. 

In July 2021, the U.S. Census Bureau did begin asking about sexual orientation and gender identity, which they refer to as SOGI, on their Household Pulse Survey (HPS), an experimental survey designed to measure the impact of COVID-19 on American households (source). This marks the first time that the U.S. Census Bureau has ever officially collected data on the broader LGBTQ+ community, and is an important first step; however, the small and experimental nature of the HPS limits the impact of its findings. There is still a long ways to go before gender identity and sexual orientation are accurately measured by the U.S. government.

If and when questions about gender identity and sexual orientation are finally included on the U.S. Census, it should be noted that there will still likely be questions about data quality and accuracy due to many LGBTQ+ people not being “out,” as well as individuals often being misgendered by their family members. Until greater societal understanding and acceptance of LGBTQ+ people is achieved and social stigma is eradicated, issues with LGBTQ+ data collection will likely persist. 

In the meantime, key data on the U.S. LGBTQ+ population is usually collected by educational or private institutions, such as the UCLA Williams Institute, Pew Research Center, and Gallup. 

The following terms were commonly used in the past, and may still be found in classification systems and/or medical terminology. However, they are generally now considered to be offensive, and often reflect inaccurate and outdated understandings of gender, sex, and sexual orientation. Use with extreme caution. 

• Outdated terminology related to gay
  • "sodomy" and "sodomite"
    • The term "sodomy" derives from the biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah wherein people are punished for engaging in acts of "sexual perversion." The term usually refers to anal intercourse between men, although it can refer to sexual acts between people of the same gender more generally, and has often been conflated with bestiality. The term is often found in legal contexts, such as "sodomy laws" which criminalize homosexual acts in some countries. Overall, these terms imply that there is something perverse and sinful about being gay. 
• Outdated terminology related to transgender
  • "transvestite"
  • "sex change operation" or "sex reassignment surgery"
    • Use the terms gender confirmation surgery or gender affirmation surgery instead.
• • "pre-operative"/"pre-op" and "post-operative"/"post-op"
    • Referring to transgender people as "pre-op" and "post-op" implies that transgender people must transition surgically, or at least desire surgical intervention, in order to be valid. Not all trans people want to undergo gender confirmation surgery or medical interventions, and that in no way erases the validity of their transness.
• Outdated terminology related to intersex
  • "hermaphrodite" and "pseudohermaphrodite"
    • These terms are widely considered to be both offensive and scientifically inaccurate. While the term "hermaphrodite" has some legitimate uses in the scientific community when discussing plants and non-human animals, it should not be used to describe humans.
    • Use the term intersex instead.
  • "disorders of sex development" or "DSD"
    • Although these terms are still in common usage in the DSM-5 and medical community, they are considered offensive by the intersex community due to their pathologization of intersex variations. Some intersex people will occasionally use "differences of sex development" instead of "disorders" when attempting to communicate with medical professionals who are already attached to the "DSD" acronym; however, this is usually a strategic workaround used out of necessity rather than preference, and the general concept of "DSD" should be avoided whenever possible.
    • Use the terms intersex, intersex traits, or intersex variations instead. Read more about intersex terminology. 

Queer theory grew out of a transdisciplinary intellectual movement that started in the late 1980s, when many scholars, especially those from humanities-oriented disciplines, began to theorize about sex, sexuality, and sexual identities in ways that especially challenged dominant scientific and cultural assumptions.

Queer of Color Critique moves Queer Theory away from an exclusive focus on sexuality as its sole site of critical inquiry and refuses to let gender, race, and class be a ghostly presence. Instead, it normalises simultaneity in its articulation by asking in what ways has the racialised, classed, and gendered discourse known as sexuality dispersed. In doing so, scholars that have contributed to this fledging field have drawn critical attention to the governing logics of knowledge production and the assumptions that form the basis of Queer Theory.