It had previously been expected that the 2020 census would ask people about their sexual orientation and gender identity. That plan has been dropped, and LGBT activists have criticised this failure as an effort “to erase” the community.

The census comes around once every 10 years, and has been around since 1790. It asks questions about things ranging from race, marital status and age to fertility, languages spoken at home, the vehicles you use and internet usage. A previous draft of the census included a question on sexual and gender identity, and several federal agencies urged the government to push this through. With questions about sex and gender, it would mean information on the LGBT population would be more detailed, and future legislation could cater to them and promote equality.

But no questions about sexual orientation or gender identity were included in the final report put before Congress.

According to the Washington Blade, there have never been questions that focus on LGBT individual citizens, but same-sex unmarried couples were first accounted for by the census in 1990.

Meghan Maury, Criminal and Economic Justice Project Director of the National LGBTQ Task Force said in a statement: “Today, the Trump Administration has taken yet another step to deny LGBTQ people freedom, justice, and equity, by choosing to exclude us from the 2020 Census and American Community Survey.”

“LGBTQ people are not counted on the Census – no data is collected on sexual orientation or gender identity. Information from these surveys helps the government to enforce federal laws like the Violence Against Women Act and the Fair Housing Act and to determine how to allocate resources like housing supports and food stamps,” Maury added.

“If the government doesn’t know how many LGBTQ people live in a community, how can it do its job to ensure we’re getting fair and adequate access to the rights, protections and services we need?” she continued.  “We call on President Trump and his Administration to begin collecting sexual orientation and gender identity data on the American Community Survey as soon as possible and urge Congress to conduct oversight hearings to reveal why the Administration made the last-minute decision not to collect data on LGBTQ people.”

Just last week, as Associated Press reports, the Trump administration attempted to quietly remove questions about sexuality from two government surveys: the National Survey of Older Americans Act Participants and the Annual Program Performance Report for Centres of Independent Living. Last month, Trump threw out former president Obama’s administration directive to give students the ability to use bathrooms according to the gender they identify with.

The Census Bureau released a statement saying that the proposed inclusion of any related questions was an error. According to the Washington Post, a blog post from Census Director John H. Thompson said 75 members of Congress had requested in April last year that “sexual orientation and gender identity” be included, but “our review” found no need for it.

“The Subjects Planned for the 2020 Census and American Community Survey report released today inadvertently listed sexual orientation and gender identity as a proposed topic in the appendix,” the statement said. “The report has been corrected.”

Sarah Kate Ellis, GLAAD CEO, said: “By erasing LGBTQ Americans from the 2020 US Census, the Trump Administration is adding a disgusting entry to a long list of tactics they’ve adopted to legally deny services and legitimacy to hard-working LGBTQ Americans.”

She continued: “The Trump Administration is trying hard to erase the LGBTQ community from the fabric of America, but visibility has always been one of the LGBTQ community’s greatest strengths.”

h/t Out magazine