The information gathered from the census is necessary for research in sociology, economics and business marketing as well as the appropriate apportioning of federal funding. Unfortunately, the 2010 census won’t to be accurate.It will fail to count legally married gay and lesbian couples, children of those gay couples and the LGBTQ population in general. This miscount will drastically undermine the data collected and skew every statistic sociologists deem important.A married couple, according to the U.S. census site, is defined as “a husband and wife enumerated as members of the same household.” This definition leaves out legally married gay and lesbian couples.This comes from the Defense Of Marriage Act (DOMA).The act states, “It’s illegal to count same-sex partners and identify them as gay and lesbian couples since same-sex unions aren’t recognized on a federal level.” People in gay or lesbian marriages will be asked to define themselves as “unmarried partners” on the census.This is a low blow for gay couples who have lived together monogamously for years, especially because college couples who move in together can define themselves in the same fashion. But it is a harsher blow to the gay couples who have a marriage license issued in their names and won’t be entitled to what the law owes them.If legally married gay and lesbian couples aren’t even counted as 3/5 of a couple, their children have the lower end of the deal yet.Children of same-sex couples will be counted as belonging to a single parent or an “unmarried partner.”This means the data the census collects will show a percentage of kids raised in single parent households when they are really in two-parent households. In addition, same-sex couples with children won’t be counted as families.Finally, the most ridiculous mistake is not counting the LGBTQ population in general.”This is all about the numbers; this is not about lifestyle or anything else,” U.S. Census spokeswoman Cynthia Endo said. But individuals can claim to be anything, from Christian to Hispanic, because of the culture and lifestyle the labels connote. Not attempting to count the members of the LGBTQ community is roughly equivalent to ignoring the community entirely.Because census data is very important to researchers of many fields, including sociologists, the numbers must add up. For the data to be skewed and undercounted just because of political reasons is not good science. Sociologists don’t care if it’s legal for a gay couple to marry, they care more about the number — an eventual and unfortunately inaccurate number — of children raised in a two-parent home.Science is at stake here. The 2000 census cost the American taxpayers about $4.5 billion — or $15 for every enumerated person. The money used to conduct the census comes from the taxpayers’ pockets.No doubt the cost of the 2010 version will be greater.Inaccurate data provided because of the closed mindedness of the elite and powerful will waste the American people’s time, money and energy.Knowing the data from the census will be incorrect invalidates the survey, making it worthless from the get-go. Isabel Blum is a 20-year-old communication disorders junior from New Orleans.– – – -Contact Isabel Blum at [email protected]