A friend raised an interesting question: how much of the form MUST be filled out?As far as I know, the only information that is actually required is question 1, “How many people were living or staying in this house, apartment, or mobile home on April 1, 2010?” Everything is optional, as it has no bearing whatsoever on the Constitutional mandate.

Answers are indeed privateI was a Census worker during the 2000 Census.  Specifically, I was one of the people they sent around to converse with you in person if you failed to send in your form.  Having done that, I can attest to the fact that the Census Bureau takes respondents’ privacy very very seriously.  
Title 13 (IIRC, it’s been 10 years) of the United States Code specifies that no other agency can ever access the information you provide in the Census.  Not the IRS.  Not the FBI.  Not anyone.  As Census workers, we had to swear and sign that we would keep all information confidential for life, and we were at risk of 5 years in prison and a massive (something like $500,000) fine if it was ever found out we blabbed.  As workers, we were actually given a script and official credentials for meeting with people.  We were NOT to deviate from that script, and the script spelled out the penalties if the worker was to blab very plainly so that respondents would feel comfortable providing answers.  
The short version:  The Census takes its shit seriously.  AND, this go-around should be far less painful than last time anyway.  In 2000, most of the people that didn’t send in their form got what was called the Long Form.  That version was several pages, front and back, and asked VERY personal questions, including income, questions about home ownership, and even things like how many rooms were in the home.  By comparison, this year’s Census has 10 questions.  

I’d fill all in and accuratelyI heard a good presentation on how the Census Bureau wants same-sex couples to fill out the forms.
One word answer: accurately.
If you hold a marriage license, you check “husband or wife” (gay, straight, or whatever). If you were married in California before Prop 8 and now live in a state the doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage, you check “husband or wife.” Ditto for a domestic partnership.
If you are in a committed relationship that has no legal standing, you check “unmarried partner.”
I realize that everyone should have the opportunity to have legal recognition for their relationships (and the rights that come with it). But let’s tell the truth.
Same-sex couples who are married or in domestic partnerships will be counted as married. If you are not married, you can’t blame the Census Bureau. They’re not stopping you! And even though Massachusetts is not lovely this time of year, you have just over two weeks to make it true.

You have to answer them allAccording to this page at the census website,

Title 13
Sec. 221. Refusal or neglect to answer questions; false answers
(a) Whoever, being over eighteen years of age refuses or willfully neglects, when requested by the Secretary, or by any other authorized officer or employee of the Department of Commerce or bureau or agency thereof acting under the instructions of the Secretary or authorized officer, to answer, to the best of his knowledge, any of the questions on any schedule submitted to him in connection with any census or survey provided for by subchapters I, II, IV, and V of chapter 5 of this title, applying to himself or to the family to which he belongs or is related, or to the farm or farms of which he or his family is the occupant, shall be fined not more than $100.
(b) Whoever, when answering questions described in subsection (a) of this section, and under the conditions or circumstances described in such subsection, willfully gives any answer that is false, shall be fined not more than $500. (c) Notwithstanding any other provision of this title, no person shall be compelled to disclose information relative to his religious beliefs or to membership in a religious body.

Awesome, You Rock.How do ss binationals fill out the census?  We need to be counted!!!

Married? DP? Just shacking up?The census isn’t asking any questions about citizenship (that went out decades ago).
If you’re a binational couple, you check “husband or wife” if you’re married or in a domestic partnership, and “unmarried partner” if you’re not.

S-S binationals rock!The census doesn’t ask for nationality.  It simply asks who is living at a particular address on the day of April 1st.  “The Census must count every person living in the United States on April 1, 2010.”  If you’re not sure how to answer, you can go to their website http://www.census.gov/2010census or call toll free 1-866-872-6868.  This contact information is in the census packet you’ll get in the mail.

you can mark “married” even if you’re notLGBT couples are allowed to choose the category that best describes their relationship as they see it, regardless of how an particular jurisdiction may or may not define it.  For example, although my wife and I are indeed legally married, our marriage is not recognized by our state (Washington), and of course not by the federal government.  But we marked “husband or wife” for our relationship because that is in truth who we are to each other.

I did the same thingThe census made no sense.  I filled out both males and hit husband.  It also said unmarried partner–I put a note next to it that in California we are married.

“How will LGBT same-sex married spouses and unmarried partners be counted by the census?”From Our Families Count:

How will LGBT same-sex married spouses and unmarried partners be counted by the census?
Fortunately, responding to persistent advocacy by demographers and community leaders including the Williams Institute (UCLA School of Law), National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the Human Rights Campaign, the U.S. Census Bureau has reversed an earlier decision and officially announced it will release counts of spouses as well as same-sex unmarried partners.
The Census form asks you to list the person who owns or rents the house as “Person 1″ and then indicate how everyone in the household is related to “Person 1″. In order to be counted as a same-sex couple, one of the partners must be listed as “Person 1″. Same-sex couples who have been legally married or consider themselves to be spouses should identify the other person as a “husband or wife”. Those terms fit some – but certainly not all – LGBT households.
Other same-sex couples may be more comfortable using the term “unmarried partner”. In general, this term is designed to capture couples who are in a “close personal relationship” and are not legally married or do not think of themselves as spouses. Census forms do not provide an option yet to explicitly designate a couple as united by civil union or a public domestic partner registry.

Me too!Just got to mark myself down as married to my husband =)

Gay the censusI will be writing in ‘GAY’ in the ‘race’ section.

So there is no right to privacy?I would be interested in learning about any cases that have been argued about Fifth Amendment rights and the census.  

Fourth Amendment, I meant. n/t

And they asked for “Sex”Not gender, so I have to answer as male:-(
Deanna

Fantastic Lurleen. Great news and great idea….keep spreading the word.

no, you can answer however you live

I meant to add……this from Our Families Count:

If I am transgender, do I check the sex I was assigned at birth or my gender identity/expression? What if neither of these options fit my identity?
The census asks each of us to tell the truth as we understand it. Check the box on the census form that most closely reflects your current gender identity. The census only provides male and female options to check, so you must choose one of these boxes.

Deanna is a woman’s name, right?If you live as a woman, then you check “female.” If you live as a male, you check “male.”
Deanna gets to check “female.”

Parachute commenting, but…Just wanted to say I put my QtC sticker on my house’s census envelope today. One more for the team.
torrent

See quotes below posted by Lurleen and I’ll post it again

Same-sex couples who have been legally married or consider themselves to be spouses should identify the other person as a “husband or wife”. Those terms fit some – but certainly not all – LGBT households.
Other same-sex couples may be more comfortable using the term “unmarried partner”. In general, this term is designed to capture couples who are in a “close personal relationship” and are not legally married or do not think of themselves as spouses. Census forms do not provide an option yet to explicitly designate a couple as united by civil union or a public domestic partner registry.

I wish we were marriedBut I still get to fill the census form with my girlfriend and me, and our relationship listed as “unmarried partner”– which is almost as good. It’s still queering the census, since we’re both female.

Ought to be MarriedMy partner and I feel like we’re married, and ought to be married, but we filled in the form as unmarried partners to protest Michigan Proposal 2 of 2004.  Once that’s off the books, we’ll describe ourselves as married.  (Yeah, I know we could take the short drive to Ontario and get hitched, but we haven’t renewed our passports or gotten the enhanced driver’s license/state ID that would allow us to cross the border.)
It will be interesting to see how the numbers turn out this time, since there’s plenty of publicity around filling out the forms as couples.

I checked “female”Filled out the form last night, marked female for myself even if the anatomy behind the underwear disagrees.   Also checked “unmarried partner” for Diane and me, hopefully can mark “married” in 2020.

It’ll add up to the same thing, I betSince the Census didn’t send explicit definitions of the categories with the forms, people are free to define them however they wish.  All people need to do is fill out the form in a way that is as honest and accurate for them as possible.  I am sure that the statistics for same-sex “unmarried partners” and same-sex “husband and wife” will be added up to indicate a minimum estimate of same-sex couples in the country.  I say minimum, because we know that some couples will not identify themselves as such out of fear.

Also CT, IA, NH, and VTYou can still get some good ski runs in NH and VT by April 1.
CT is near NYC (honeymoon, anyone?) and IA…. IA is closer to folks not on the east coast? Sorry — I’m just not sure what’s going on in IA in late March.

THIS.What Lurleen said — The census counts bodies, not citizenship or immigration status.
Also, the bodies must be alive. I had to clarify this on Facebook.

And Washington, D.C. too!

Oh good lordHow the hell did I forget that??? Man. That’s terrible.
I hereby apologize to DC for leaving them off this list and will attempt to redeem myself by offering this suggestion:
The cherry blossoms are forecast to be blooming from March 31 to April 11, and in peak bloom April 3-8 this year.
http://www.nps.gov/cherry/cher…

If you were married in California before Prop 8 passedyour marriage continues to be recognized by the State of California, so you’re actually part of the first group you mention.  I agree with your point, though, that all three categories in your first paragraph should check “husband or wife.”

Fear is not the only reasonMy (not legally married but registered domestic partner) wife and I are unable to categorize our relationship on the census form. I own a house, she just inherited a house and we actually live in both houses: weeknights in hers and weekends in mine. Houses are about 4 miles apart but are in different cities. As we can’t have both of us listed on both census forms the only option is to fill out both forms as if we live alone.
As we can mark multiple boxes in the race category we will be marking the appropriate race and then writing in lesbian under the “some other race” in addition to adding the Queer the Census sticker to the return envelope.

Where will you both be on April 1stI believe that the census wants to know who is in what address on that date.  So, if you’re both at one house that day, that’s the census form you would answer on, isn’t it?  The form does ask if you spend significant time at another address, so you could list the other house there if they ask for an address).

I queered my census doc!I’m pre-op, my gender marker on my DL says “F” and I’m married to a woman.  I giggled a bit when I filled it out!  
And N+1′ing the suggestions that Deanna should check “female” on her census form.