Anyway, I just filled out my census form. In the relationship portion I noticed that the choices included, among many others, "husband/wife" and "unmarried partner".
That leaves out husband/husband and wife/wife. There really is a difference in opposite-sex couples between those who have chosen to live together and those who have chosen to marry. That difference is responded to in so many aspects of our culture and is a part of how their friends view them, etc. Without providing a recognition of the differences between these two realities for same-sex couples a lot of valuable information is being missed by the census.
I actually think that this is a MUCH bigger issue than the simple equality issue. People who work with data want the data to be as clear as possible and to allow them to run as many analyses as any future researcher might dream up. A decision to be discriminatory in the data collection not only hurts people now it constrains what future researchers will be able to understand. (I think that the argument of the discriminators is that it will prevent those researchers from knowing about a part of their society they would like to hide, but, the reality is that researchers simply see an inability to analyze, rather than make assumptions about what it must mean.)
Anyway, I just filled out my census form. In the relationship portion I noticed that the choices included, among many others, "husband/wife" and "unmarried partner". I know that I probably sound naive, but I'm just honestly curious about what other option they should put on the form to satisfy everyone.
The 2006 Canadian Census form asked the questions this way. (As a child with complicated step-parent relationships I think that there is a weakness in the way they address that issue, but, the spousal part is good.)
STEP E
Copy the names in Step B to Question 1, on top of page 4.
Keep the same order.
1.NAME
In the spaces provided, copy the names in the same order as in Step B. Then answer the following questions for each person.
PERSON 1
Family Name ______________________________
Given Name ______________________________
2. SEX
circle Male
circle Female
3. DATE OF BIRTH
Day Month Year
Example : 1 3 0 2 1 9 5 0
If exact date is not known, enter best estimate.
Date of birth
Day Month Year
_____ ______ ________
4. MARITAL STATUS
Mark one circle only.
circle Never legally married (single)
circle Legally married (and not separated)
circle Separated, but still legally married
circle Divorced
circle Widowed
5.
Is this person living with a common-law partner? Common-law refers to two people of the opposite sex or of the same sex who live together as a couple but who are not legally married to each other.
circle Yes
circle No
6. RELATIONSHIP TO PERSON 1
For each person usually living here, describe his/her relationship to Person 1.
Mark or specify one response only.
Stepchildren, adopted children and children of a common-law partner should be considered sons and daughters.
If none of the choices apply, use the "Other" box to indicate this person's relationship to Person 1.
Examples of "Other" relationships to Person 1:
cousin
niece or nephew
lodger's husband or wife
room-mate's son or daughter
employee
same-sex married spouse
PERSON 1
circle PERSON 1
PERSON 2
circle Husband or wife of Person 1
circle Opposite-sex common-law partner of Person 1
circle Same-sex common-law partner of Person 1
circle Son or daughter of Person 1
circle Son-in-law or daughter-in-law of Person 1
circle Grandchild of Person 1
circle Father or mother of Person 1
circle Father-in-law or mother-in-law of Person 1
circle Grandparent of Person 1
circle Brother or sister of Person 1
circle Brother-in-law or sister-in-law of Person 1
circle Lodger or boarder
circle Room-mate
Other Specify ______________________________
My notes: I still don't think this is a perfect form, but, it should allow researchers to use the full set of data. For instance, it irks me that the list of "Other" relationships includes the possibility of listing same-sex married spouse, but, I think that this was left in from a previous census because there were people who indicated a desire to specifically identify that way. Since the choice of Husband or Wife is gender neutral it should allow both opposite-sex and same-sex couples to be included. They can then be split (if desired) by looking at the data for sex of each person. (Btw, I'm pretty sure most same-sex married couples listed themselves as married rather than other. Plus, the requirement to specify when choosing other makes it clearer.) Given this, I am also slightly irked that they separated "Opposite-sex common-law" and "Same-sex common-law" because the data set doesn't require the separation in order to count both. But, again, I think that it was a matter of including questions in a form that they thought people might wish to see. I suspect that the data analysts quickly transformed the data to collapse that distinction before proceeding with further analyses.
Oh! I agree with you 110%...
