Stand up and be counted? Not by the census.

So the US Census is on the horizon and, once again, they are going to find a way to keep out the married same-sex couples.

"The Census Bureau will be operating under the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act, which 'instructs all federal agencies only to recognize opposite-sex marriages for the purposes of enacting any agency programs.'"

The Census Bureau will alter the entries of same-sex, married couples, to reflect the version of reality the government would prefer to see. Why should this matter to me, you might ask? Because the US Census is the standard used for much of the data collection performed by states, counties, and cities. And that standard is going to systematically work to exclude accurate information on same sex couples and families. Because without accurate information about our community, we cannot begin to properly serve the needs of our people. And because, once again, we are being ignored, changed, isolated, and made invisible, by the very organizations ostensibly working to reveal the landscape of our country.