EDGE on the Net

The 2010 Census did not ask America’s gay families to identify themselves, but through some cross-referencing and detective work information on the country’s same-sex families can nonetheless be inferred. The Williams Institute is set to do just that.

It’s been known as anecdotally true for some time that the greater the visibility of GLBT individuals, the greater their acceptance in society at large--and thus, in a virtuous circle, the greater the visibility of GLBT individuals.

India is busily conducting its 15th national census, with millions of government workers deploying across the country to tally its estimated 1.17 billion people and ask questions on housing, work and education that should give a clearer picture of the world’s most populous democracy and its vast needs.

The number of poor people in the U.S. is millions higher than previously known, with 1 in 6 Americans - many of them 65 and older - struggling in poverty due to rising medical care and other costs, according to preliminary census figures released Wednesday.

Analysis of the 2009 American Community Survey shows that Washington, D.C., leads the nation in the number of male same-sex households; Massachusetts, the first state to legalize marriage equality, leads with the most lesbian households.

As the recession shook Americans’ confidence last year, new figures show that weddings for people 18 and older dropped to the lowest point in over a hundred years.

The income gap between the richest and poorest Americans grew last year to its widest amount on record as young adults and children in particular struggled to stay afloat in the recession.

As Americans fill out their once-a-decade U.S. Census forms, the Census Bureau is implementing part of what one senior Census Bureau employee called ’’historic’’ efforts at counting LGBT people in the Census.

For the first time, GLBT Americans will be able to indicate whether they are part of a same-sex family when responding to the Census. But anti-gay conservative groups are saying that permitting gays to list themselves as "married" is a violation of federal law.

With strong backing from the Census Bureau, gay-rights activists are urging maximum participation by their community in the first U.S. census that will tally same-sex couples who say they’re married - even those without a marriage license.